The Titan's Wrath
by Skrumpf
Summary: Commander Sebastian Lyall leads the elite black ops fleet known as the Titan's Shield. It is the largest collection of UNSA ships that guards all UNSA Colonies in the Solar System and beyond. However, whilst on patrol for Fleet Week alone, it is left to the UNSA Titan, Tigris and Retribution to keep Earth safe from the SDF and the evil clutches of Admiral Salen Kotch.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Consequences**

"Sir, we need oxygen." Sipes managed to sputter out.

"Coming to you!" Tee barely crawled from the floor before he was kicked back down onto the cold ice.

Dan 'Wolf' Lyall was lying on his back, staring emptily at the gigantic planet that was Jupiter, and Jupiter was staring right back at him. He tried to get up from the cracked, breaking ice from under him, but he simply could not. His lungs were burning, and he soon realised that his helmet was leaking oxygen. He quickly placed his hand over the cracked glass of his helmet, in a vain attempt to try and save his oxygen supply. Dan felt as if the oxygen were being tore right out from his lungs, and those organs felt like they had been set alight more and more as oxygen continued to leave him.

He looked around for his rifle, but he could not find it. If he had, he would have tried to take out as many of the SDF troops as he could. They were beating on his men, on Sipes and Tee. He was an officer, his job was to take care of his men, and he could not do that whilst he was groaning and moaning in pain on the floor. He tried to reach for his side-arm, patting down on his thigh as he tried to feel the cold metal of the gun. As soon as he felt the Titan's, he tore the gun out of it's holster, taking aim.

Click, click, click.

His gun was empty. Dan would have tried for his knife, if it weren't buried in one of the countless militants that had tried to cave his head in. He dropped the gun on to the ice, and one of the soldiers that stood above him kicked the gun away and picked Dan up from the floor.

The soldiers were all part of the SDF, or the Settlement Defence Front. They were all men or women of Mars, seceded from the iron grip of the United Nations Space Alliance. The man holding Dan was wearing a bulky set of armour, coloured in red and black paint, whilst being coated in every insulating material he could think of.

There was a loud crack that had erupted from the sky, and Dan just caught the bright light as the lightning made contact to the floor. As soon as he had noticed the lightning, a few feet away was a monstrous site.

The grey Titan's monstrosity hovered in the turbulent sky, lightning striking all around the massive aircraft as it hovered above Europa's surface. It was the largest ship that Dan Lyall had seen in his life, and it seemed that Sipes and Tee were of the same opinion as they glared angrily at the sight. The man that held Dan up seemed to smile with a grin of sadistic mirth.

"You like that, huh? That's the Olympus Mons, our own secret weapon..." The soldier had said.

"Don't talk to me, bastard." Dan tried to shoot back, and was thrown back down to the ice.

Dan tried to groan, but he realised that he couldn't even do that. He was completely silent as Sipes and Tee looked on in horror as Dan began to suffocate.

"Get him up." Somebody ordered, and the soldier that had threw him down and had suddenly picked him up again. "Get the man some air."

Dan looked up from the floor, and looked at whoever had decided to save his life.

The man wore the same uniform as his other soldiers, yet the way he walked echoed a sense of superiority and sovereignty. His face was not covered by a helmet, instead Dan could clearly see his face. He was young to be an officer, but he seemed to be more hardened and stone-faced than his men. One of the men handed him a cannister, and the younger man attached to Dan's helmet, allowing him to breathe freely once more.

As the man knelt down to Dan's level, and Dan finally got a good look at the man. As the snow began to catch around the man's helmet, Dan could see the stormy grey eyes and the massive scar that ran over the man's face. His jet black hair managed to barely fit in the mask, but it seemed to give the man no problem as he stared emptily into Dan's very soul.

"Where are the rest of your men? How many did you come with?" He asked.

Dan sighed. "We're it..." He had no chance of fighting back, and if he refused to speak, they'd kill him and his men.

The man nodded, his eyes closed before they refocused on Dan. "What about the ship we shot down?"

Dan had to sigh again, and he knew that the young officer had caught him out on his lie. It hadn't been Dan's best lie, but he knew it was better than nothing. He had usually been a better liar, but that was when he had been telling his mother that he hadn't been climbing in and out of girls' bedroom windows when he was a stupid teenager. No, now he was a soldier, and he could not lie to save his own life, or his fellow soldiers' lives.

His final method was to plead with the young officer. "Please, my men need medical. We'll do anything, no, I'll do anything. Just help them..." 

The officer seemed to soften as Dan begged and pleaded with him to save the men just away from him. He seemed to reach a conclusion quickly. "You care for your men?" He asked.

Dan nodded, with a glum look on his face. As soon as he had responded, another trooper had marched over to the young officer and knelt beside him.

"Admiral Kotch, the data is retrieved. Operation: RIAH is now ready to begin."

The officer now known as Admiral Kotch nodded, and then stood up, letting Dan hold onto the cannister of oxygen as he stood. Kotch drew his pistol, and aimed it at Sipes and Tee as they lied on the cold ice, beaten and wounded. He raised his arm, and his pistol, and he was now aiming at one of his own troops.

For a second, the soldier was shocked, but the look of shock was soon replaced with an empty stare as Admiral Kotch shot him square in the chest. The man collapsed to the floor, and none of his comrades tried to help him as he began to lose his blood and oxygen. The trooper soon fell to the floor, dead.

Kotch holstered his pistol, and glared at Dan. "Care clouds judgement." He stated, before kneeling back down before Dan.

"That is why you cannot win." Kotch turned, and admired the gargantuan planet that was Jupiter.

"This place, it isn't yours any more." 

As Kotch finished, he tore the cannister of oxygen from Dan's helmet. The oxygen display on Dan's helmet almost immediately dropped to zero, and he fell to the floor, grasping and clawing at his throat as his lungs began to burn viscously. He watched as the soldiers began to leave, replaced with emotionless robots as they stomped over to the dying soldiers on the ice.

"Kill them." Kotch ordered. "Don't waste the bullets."

The robots holstered their weapons, and almost immediately one of the bots raised it's leg and dropped it on Sipes' head, and grey matter and blood then splattered across the ice. The robot then did the same to Tee, although he tried to fight back. The robots then turned their attention to Lyall. He could not get up, he tried and tried but it did not matter. The robots held him down and flattened his skull before walking back onto the ship they had arrived on.

 _ **X-X-X**_

Commander Sebastian Lyall had boarded himself up in his office, just a few steps away from the bridge of his ship. The super-carrier class ship UNSA Titan had docked in Liverpool for it's usual review from Rear Admiral Mikhailovich, and Sebastian had to be the one to defend himself from the extremely cruel nitpicking of Mikhailovich.

The Titan was usually never recalled in for more than twice a year. It was busy patrolling the solar system on a yearly course, making sure there were going to be no surprise attacks from the Settlement Defence Front and to make sure they stuck to Mars and stayed there.

It was not just the Titan that patrolled the solar system. Always trailing behind the super-carrier was the Titan's Shield, a collection of frigates and destroyers that would travel down to a planet or moon if there was a problem. They were a classified operation, only known to the very crew that lived aboard the ships, the men and women who repaired it on Earth, Rear Admiral Mikhailovich and the very leader of the Navy, Admiral Raines.

"Do you believe that the Titan and the crew is diverse, with all members of the crew bringing aspects from their own walks of life?" Mikhailovich said, reading from his clipboard.

"Respectfully, Rear Admiral, diversity has no place aboard my ship. It doesn't matter to me if someone is white, black, Asian or bloody Irish. If they're signed on to join my crew, my fleet, then I don't care. I want them to do their job, and not get us all killed. I say that respectfully, sir."

Admiral Mikhailovich nodded and grunted as he wrote down a few notes. He then took one last look at the rest of the answers that Sebastian had given. Mikhailovich then stood up and in return, Sebastian stood to attention and saluted the Rear Admiral before the older man left the office, and then left the ship.

Sebastian let out a loud sigh, and unlocked the office door, so any of his crew could fill him on anything that was happening. He soon took off the overly-tight service uniform and let himself breathe freely in the black tank top and the cargo pants that he wore. He entered the bathroom that was connected to his office and looked at himself in the mirror.

He kept his hair longer, and it had been a long time since he had last had it cut, since it was long enough that it was now in a small pony tail that refused to wave around in the wind. The sides of his hair were short, and he had a slight beard beginning to grow.

He was the complete opposite to his brother, Daniel. Whilst Daniel Lyall was short and almost a bodybuilder, Sebastian Lyall was lanky, and had the same amount of muscle as a Russian gymnast. Daniel had signed up to become a trooper, and Sebastian had signed on to become a commissioned officer. Daniel Lyall was a rule-breaker, but Sebastian Lyall was a rule-maker.

Sebastian had not heard from Daniel for a while. When Sebastian had been made Commander of the Titan and the Titan's Shield, he had been told expressly by Admiral Raines that contact with uninformed members of the navy would result in a dishonourable discharge. He had been happy when Dan had been made a Petty Officer in the acclaimed SCAR teams. He had asked special permission to be there for his older brother.

Admiral Raines had allowed it, and in a few days before the ceremony. It was one of the best moments in Dan's life, and one of the very few times that Sebastian had seen Dan since they had joined the UNSA. The cold Titan's walls had became Sebastian's closest friends, they were where he felt the safest. Sebastian and his crew make sure the Titan doesn't crash and burn, and the Titan in turn keeps them safe in the cold and harsh atmosphere of space.

Sebastian heard a faint ringing sound from his office, and it would be coming from a communication directly from Admiral Raines, he was the only person that could call. He left the bathroom and quickly answered the call, and stood in front of the camera screen that would project his immediate area to Admiral Raines. The black screen in front of him was replaced with the leader of the Navy.

"Commander Lyall."

"Admiral Raines. I have a feeling this isn't a social call." 

"As much as I wish it was, I wouldn't have time to make a call, it would be a very long call. Mikhailovich has just mailed me his review of the Titan and the Shield. It seems I still have a reason to give the security council to keep the fleet going for another year." Raines managed to let out a sigh of relief.

"With all due respect, if we didn't have a fleet week we would not have to worry about my ships patrolling the system. We also would not have to worry about the SDF trying to ambush us at every corner, Admiral." 

"I didn't call you to dictate about a god damn Fleet Week parade. I've got some bad news, son." Raines announced, immediately silencing Sebastian's arguments against Fleet Week.

"SDF moving again?" Sebastian asked.

"No. We had a SCAR team on Europa to try and recover a special weapon and data that was under attack by SDF. The SDF managed to retrieve the data and destroy the weapon. The SCAR team never made it back. We suffered some casualties. Your brother..."

Sebastian had stopped listening as soon as Raines had mentioned his brother. He could hear Raines trying to explain the whole situation, but he did not want to hear it. His brother looked after him when he was younger. Whenever Sebastian had gotten into a fight, Dan had always pulled him out of it and solved it himself, taking the punishment for whatever Sebastian had gone and done.

Now he was dead.

"Admiral Raines, how many men were in on that operation?" Sebastian asked.

Admiral Raines had sighed. "Three, plus one pilot."

"So the head of the SCAR division thought it was smart to send a three man team into try and fight back against a full raiding party of SDF bastards, on an operation that required at least five squads plus support to try and recover a weapon that is now destroyed and data that has now been stolen."

"Believe me, the head of SCAR is being grilled about why he sent such a small team on such a large op." Raines tried to interrupt. 

"Well, doing that isn't going to bring my brother back, is it? Who were the two men that were with him?" Sebastian shot back.

Raines groaned once more, as he was being grilled by the younger Lyall. "James Tee and Adam Sipes."

"The head of SCAR is not only responsible for the death of my brother, but for the death of two other SCAR operatives. Three names you are gonna have to add to the wall in Geneva." Sebastian managed to growl.

Sebastian had to try and hold himself back from turning off the screen. He wanted the man taken to the courts and ruined for murder of four lives. Yet he knew Raines would never go that far, but if he didn't, Sebastian knew that his parents would damn well try. The dog tags that hung around his neck began to jingle as Sebastian prowled around his office. He wanted to rage, he wanted to throw his desk through the window, although if he did that, he would be in the same position as his brother.

Dead.

"Commander, that is not it." Raines began again.

"What else, Raines?"

"The security council has been consulting about the classified status of your fleet. They have voted to reveal the knowledge of the fleet to Earth, Commander Lyall." 

Sebastian kicked his desk. "Admiral, you told me if anyone ever found out about the Titan, the SDF would latch onto the info immediately and respond accordingly. When they find out that we have a super-carrier class ship and a fleet that patrols the system, how do you think they'll react?!"

"I know that, son. I tried to tell them, that when SDF finds out, they will threaten us, and when they threaten us, they always follow through. It's a mistake, and my own views are lined indelibly with your own. Take a different tact." Raines replied, without emotion.

"Admiral, we've had this drilled in our heads. The men and women of my crew are of the same mind, and I'm sure the men and women of the Shield are of the same mind too. Every man and woman in the UNSA would agree that a mistake is a hole in the head. Every marine, naval officer, pilot, SCAR operative and robot would agree that a mistake is a hole in the head. How can this happen?!"

"Because the politicians will throw anything and anyone into the fires to keep their smokestacks burning. Until we have utter confirmation that we are at war with the Settlement Defence Front, the warriors, you and I and every other soldier is not in charge. Sadly, today is not this day. Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir." Sebastian replied.

"Now, I'm giving full clearance for the Shield ships to go into drop. I don't want them at the Fleet Week parade, Commander. I've already had the Security Council on my ass to show as many ships at the parade as we can. We have the Second and Fourth Fleet on the parade, but the other fifteen are in the other colonies outside the Solar System. I want you to send the Shield outside the Solar System, everything except the Titan. Now, ready the Titan and get your ass to Geneva and let's show the Earth what the Titan can do."

"Yes, sir. Over and out." 

"Over and out."

Raines cut the call first, and left Sebastian standing around in his office, in relative silence. He mourned for his lost brother, and he was going to kill the bastard who had killed him. Sebastian wasn't religious by any stretch, but he definitely subscribed to the idea of 'an eye for an eye'.

Sebastian took the bottle of whiskey and took a large swig of it, sitting in his office until his ship was cleared for flight.

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **This shall be the first chapter of a story for Infinite Warfare. Even though it was completely ignored by most people, I really liked it, and I thought alongside my other fics, I do this for funsies whenever I get the time.**_

 _ **Anyway, the updates to my stories now will either be for this one or for my Harry Potter fic, and I definitely would not mind if all of you reading this would favourite, follow and review.**_

 _ **For me? Pretty please?**_

 _ **~The Real Italian Stallion~**_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Fleet Week

It had taken Sebastian a while to recover from the news that Dan had died, and that he would have to go to Fleet Week, but he soon recovered. He fiddled with the dog tags on his neck, staring at them as he sat at the cold steel desk that he sat behind. He looked at the computer monitor in front of him, aimlessly looking at the status reports coming from all the sections of The Titan. All crews were at one hundred percent readiness. A few of the staff were recovering from a stomach bug that had went round after last weeks Chao Mein night, but aside from that, every one was good and ready.

Sebastian looked around his office, the steel walls were as cold as the arctic and as colourful as a blank canvas. Sebastian had decorated the office in an attempt to make it feel more homey, but it did little. The game and film posters added colour to the office, and some old paintings, pictures and ship replicas filled the empty space, it was hard to make the office truly feel like home in the deep dark recesses of space.

Even if they weren't in space, they were in Liverpool. Liverpool was the main repair and review station for the Titan and the Shield. Liverpool was not Sydney, Australia. Liverpool was not home, Liverpool did not have Sebastian's family. However, Liverpool did have the amazing Empire Theatre, which Sebastian had wanted to go and see, to see his favourite play 'Blood Brothers'.

Sebastian sighed when he realised that he had not seen his parents since Dan's SCAR initiation. His mother and father would probably be scared, worried and they did not know if both of their sons had died in the line of duty. He wished he could just call them then and there, to confirm to them that he was alive, and then he realised that he would have to confirm to them the fact that Dan really was dead.

"I'm going to miss you, Dan." Sebastian murmured.

He spent a few hours locked in his office, with nobody daring to interrupt the captain during his private time. The crew knew their captain was an immensely private person, and the only person that knew him well enough that wasn't in his family was the leader of the Marines on the UNSA Titan.

Gunnery Chief Elsa Devereaux.

Elsa had been a close friend of the captain, but close was all that was ever said. There was speculation aboard the ship, rumours that Commander Lyall and Chief Devereaux were more than just friends, some days it was boyfriend and girlfriend, and some other days it was just friends with benefits. They would never say this in front of the captain or the chief.

Not unless they thought being thrown out of an airlock was any fun.

So when Elsa had walked into Sebastian's office, she had been completely ambushed by the almost topless Commander. She could spend at least a week just trailing the various tattoos that covered Sebastian's body. The most noticeable one was the snake coiling itself around his upper arm, reeling back as if it were about to jump off of his arm and bite whoever was closest. There were various others, a crucifix that decorated his shoulder and the Australian flag was spread over his right side of his chest, just spreading over his right shoulder. There were larger ones one his back and the rest of his torso, but they were well hidden by Sebastian's black tank top.

"Hey Chief, what's up?" Sebastian had asked.

Elsa just stared at Sebastian, almost glaring. "With all due respect, Seb, it's me that should be asking you that. You look like you're about to cry."

Sebastian looked in the mirror hanging next to his desk, and he could see what Elsa had meant. His eyes were bloodshot, and it did indeed seem like he had been crying. He may have been crying, but he was not going to tell a soul that he was. If the crew see their leader break down in the middle of a battle, the domino effect begins and everyone loses their shit. At least that was what the Australian commander had believed, especially since becoming Commander of UNSA Titan and the Shield.

Sebastian could remember when he was just a simple officer that either directed ground teams or was a co-pilot. He could never forget that moment when Captain Walker of the UNSA Minotaur had gave an astonishing recommendation to the UNSA Brass to give Sebastian Lyall a position as a commissioned officer. Soon, Sebastian became Petty Officer Lyall and as he spent more time in the UNSA, he slowly rose up the ranks until he became the captain of his very own ship, his pride and joy.

The Titan.

"Yeah, well. I've just found out that..." Sebastian had began to try and stifle a cry, but he just couldn't keep it in. "It's Dan… He's gone, Ellie. The SetDef bastards killed him on Europa."

Elsa's hearts fell. She took her closest friend and hugged him, as he began to break down into tears. She could not help but feel for her closest friend. Sebastian had always been there for her, and she could remember that one time when she was a corporal. She could remember being trapped on Mars during the recently ended Secession Wars, and Sebastian had taken a single SCAR Jackal and returned for her. He wasn't even a marine and he was showing how much of a good marine he would have been, could have been…

He should have been, but he wasn't the marine. His brother was a marine before he joined SCAR, before Dan 'Wolf' Lyall had became one more casualty to the Settlement Defence Front.

"When did you find out?" Elsa asked, keeping a hold of her friend.

"Just an hour ago." Sebastian replied. "Raines just told me, and now the fleet is no longer a classified task force and every other fleet has been sent out of Sol except the Titan. The Titan will be revealed in..."

"Just tell me, Cap. When is it happening?"

"A few hours from now, or whenever we're given the all-clear for drop-flight. The Titan is gonna be revealed at Fleet Week and the rest of the Fleets bar the Second and Fourth Fleet. A fucking Fleet Week parade for the only super-carrier ship we have. It's like bending over for the SDF and screaming to them 'slide it in!'. We're asking to be attacked."

There was a typical silence between Elsa and Sebastian. If either of them had nowhere to go in a conversation, silence was the only way forward. Sebastian could not help but stare and gawp at the woman in front of him. She was only a few inches shorter than Sebastian himself, but she was definitely noticeable. The bright blonde hair and the tanned skin had been the blessings of her genes, and it had gotten plenty of male (and occasional female) attention. She kept herself in shape, with enough muscle to carry her equipment when she was on mission.

"Only you could describe an SDF attack using a sexual innuendo." Elsa muttered as she clung to her friend.

"Yeah, well I consider it a talent." Sebastian smirked as he kept his arms wrapped around Elsa.

The moment was interrupted by a mechanical voice that spoke over the speakers in Sebastian's office. Spyglass, the Titan's AI had taken to giving announcements at the worst of times, but that was only in Sebastian's opinion.

"Commander, I have a call coming from Top Cat, AKA Admiral Raines. Should I put him through?" The artificial intelligence asked.

"Go on, Spyglass."

The wide screen just next to Sebastian and Elsa had crackled back to life, and the black screen was replaced with a great blur of colours, red, black, brown. Admiral Raines had shown up, alongside a figure who was dressed in the blue digicam SCAR fatigues. There seemed to be some marines running around in the background and group of black bags trying to hide away as best as they could in the corner.

"Commander Lyall, this is Top Cat. We have a code black situation in Geneva. We require immediate assistance."

"Admiral Raines, what's going on?"

The admiral seemed more than stressed, he seemed traumatised, and if it were for the reason of black bags still hiding in the back of the picture, he had a reason to be worried. The man in the SCAR fatigues seemed to be directing marines to the left side of the frame, and they soon disappeared out of sight. Admiral Raines soon disappeared, leaving the man in SCAR fatigues to explain the situation. He seemed just as terrified as Raines did, but he seemed to be handling it better than the old admiral. His face seemed gaunt, and his hair had seemed to be going from black to grey, a sign of either old age or stress.

"Listen," the man began. "The SDF have hacked the AATIS guns in Geneva, and they've shot down nearly all of the UNSA forces, including every ship we have in the Second and Fourth Fleet. We've got heavy casualties and we need as many reinforcements as we can get." 

"What's your name and rank, soldier?" Sebastian asked, now becoming the commander he was again. Elsa knew better than to interrupt Sebastian when he became Commander Lyall.

"Lieutenant Nick Reyes of the SCAR company on UNSA Retribution, sir."

"Give me a list of ship losses." Lyall demanded.

Reyes seemed to be trying to remember as many ships as he could. "We've lost UNSA Vengeance, Eclipse, Nova, Ocana, Endurance and Seeker. If we don't get reinforcements now, there won't be a fleet!"

"My ships will be there in three mikes, Lieutenant Reyes. Try and retake the AATIS before my ships drop in to Geneva. I'd like to keep my ships as unmolested as possible."

"Affirmative. Fair winds, Commander." 

Sebastian and Elsa stormed out of the office, and Commander Lyall had taken command of UNSA Titan. Some of the officers gave salutes and others merely gave a nod before continuing on with their jobs. Sebastian took his place in the captain's chair, and he had a view over everyone on the bridge, with a clear view of what was happening outside of the ship. Elsa had taken to standing next to the captain as he began giving orders.

It was odd, looking at the space in front of him and not having it be crowded by the various cruisers, frigates, carriers, battleships and destroyers. All that was left was the Titan, as every other ship had dropped out of the Solar System, to defend the thousands of colonies outside the Solar System.

"Spyglass, plot a course to Geneva, right now!" Sebastian demanded.

"Commander, we are still moored to the magnetic docks. We will have to break them." The AI responded.

"Doesn't matter, plot the course." Sebastian ordered. "Merrick, Li, I'm giving you blank check to do whatever it takes to get us Geneva in record time."

"Yessir!" The two pilots shouted back.

The Scotsman and the Chinaman began to swipe through holographic screens, rapidly pressing buttons whilst throwing status updates at each other, shouting over each other and responding right afterwards with only a second of breath between updates. The engines of UNSA Titan had began to rumble and grumble like the angry giants that the ship had shared it's name with. Pillars had begun to rise out of the steel structure of the Titan, and had begun to glow a bright blue which soon began to turn eerie purple.

"All clear!"

"Pilots, give me drop accuracy!"

"Point eight nine, Commander!"

"Raise it boys, do it now or do it in transit! We drop now!"

Sebastian grabbed the microphone attached to the side of his chair and began to speak/

"All hands to drop combat stations!" Sebastian threw the microphone back into it's slot before the bridge was painted in dark purple light instead of the regular bright blue of regular drop-travel.

 _ **X-X-X**_

Nick Reyes had not been expecting a surprise attack, but he knew he should have done. Nick was a squad leader of SCAR, he should have been alert, he should have been better but he knew there way no way of reversing time. Almost all of the fleet had been destroyed. He had been on the streets, just a few feet away from the ocean as the UNSA Endurance nose-dived into the water before ruthlessly crashing through the concrete right next to him.

He had been pulled back by his best pilot, Nora 'Fever' Salter. She threw her hand around his neck and almost dragged him back before he killed himself. Since then, Nick made it his personal target to not run off without his squad behind him. Admiral Raines had taken to staying in the dank and dingy basement that the UNSA forces called a forward operating base. Nick had taken to charging up the bombed out hill to the AATIS control tower with Salter following close behind him.

Nick took hold of his rifle once more, peeking his head out just enough so he could aim at the next SDF soldier that poked his head up. He could hear Salter firing away with her machine gun, and once he caught the glimpse of one soldier, he took a breathe and pulled the trigger, watching as the muzzle flashed and blood splattered out of the soldier's chest. He fell to the floor out of sight, never to return.

"Raider!" Salter called over to Nick by his own codename. "How long until backup?!" She yelled over the gunfire.

"Not long, Fever. One mike!" Nick replied.

There was a heavy metal clunking coming closer and closer towards the two SCAR operatives. The black metal frame of an Enhanced Tactical Humanoid, 3RD Revision crouched next to them, his blue 'eye' mirrored the movements of an actual eye, looking around frantically, and the shell designed to protect the eye began to shift accordingly.

The two SCAR soldiers had thought the robot's name was a little too long, and soon had began to call him 'Ethan'. The robot had the voice of a southern farmer, and according to Admiral Raines was one of a kind. He was capable of human responses and (apparently) human emotion. Ethan carried a massive mini-gun, planting it in the ground and looking wearily at Nick and Salter.

"Lieutenants, I'm detecting a very distinct drop signature heading right this way. Probably best of you hunkered down in… three, two, one..."

There was a sound, but instead of the great boom, it had sounded like the sky had cracked open, and a purple light had shone in the skies until the largest ship that Nick, Salter or Ethan had ever saw overshadowed them, guns blazing and small troop transports flying from out of the multitude of bays that were inside the hulking beast of a ship.

Nick had only heard of it in brief from Admiral Raines, but he knew of the UNSA making concepts for a Supercarrier class ship, with the firepower of five destroyers, ten battleships and the space of fifteen carriers. The ship that had just dropped out of nowhere, with the distinct drop-hue a weird purple instead of regular blue, and it had turned the very tide of the battle.

Yet it had came far too late. The Second and Fourth Fleet had been eradicated.

But Nick could not think about that at that moment when he could have been shot at any time.

"ALL FORCES, MOVE UP! TAKE BACK THE TOWER!" Nick had all but screamed, and he could feel his voice go hoarse.

The marines, officers and pilots had yelled in reply, charging the hill and mopping up any SDF resistance that still existed after the bombardment of the fleet.

"Lieutenant Reyes," Admiral Raines called over the comm. "The SDF have turned on the AATIS self-destruct, get up there and stop them!"

There was an influx up the hill as marines from the supercarrier that was watching from the sky, and those odd ships that flew from the massive ship kept hovering around the tower, as if they knew what had happened and were now directing the ground forces for where to go. Nick had ran up the hill with them, making sure to be cautious when he neared the gates that were once the position of the SDF defenders. The marines pulled them down and charged the tower, breaking down the security doors until they came to the AATIS control room.

"Ethan, break it down."

As soon as Nick had given the order, Ethan threw the mini-gun to the floor and took a running start before throwing his formidable metal frame through the doors. On his own, he wasn't enough to break the door down, but when he placed a firm metal foot on the door, it went flying off it's hinges. The door crushed one of the unfortunate SDF soldiers, leaving a large red splatter on the computers just by him.

Bullets echoed throughout the massive room, and soon enough all of the defenders were either dead or apprehended. Ethan had charged the room and grabbed the man who looked like the commanding officer before Nick unplugged the computer that had just almost blew up the turrets around Geneva.

"Reset the AATIS guns, Ethan. We're gonna need them if the SDF think about coming out from atmo." Salter mentioned, and soon Ethan had tapped away at the keys, quickly resetting the hulking guns.

Soon, the marines that had stormed the tower alongside Reyes and the others had brought the struggling SDF commander to him. The man was short in stature, with shorter hair but he held a sadistic grin. He was dressed in UNSA clothing, and held a ID tag on his belt. Nick tore it off and scanned it over one of the computers, revealing his name as Michael Aaron Page.

"He's an SDF sleeper cell." Salter had grimaced, almost growling at the mere mention of the acronym.

"That's not my name. That is the moniker of an Earthen fool." The spy commented.

"Then what is your name?" Reyes asked.

The man got up from his knees and smirked at Reyes. "Commander Akeel Min Riah, of the Settlement Defence Front."

"You started a war-" Nick tried to say.

"And I will finish that war. Mars Aeternum."

The marines had dragged the undercover commander away to be incarcerated. The rest of the soldiers began manning stations on the control room. Nick had been relieved to say the least, and Salter seemed to breathe easier as the SDF ships that were still in the sky were shot down by the now retaken AATIS guns.

 _ **X-X-X**_

Commander Lyall had been relieved when he heard the AATIS guns had been retaken, and were now shooting down the troop carriers that seemed to be running back to Mars with their tails tucked firmly between their legs. His bridge crew had begun to howl and cheer, some of them insulting their SDF opponents. The vertically propelled carriers known as 'Falcons' had begun to carry the marines back into the Titan or whatever other ship they had arrived in.

As the pilots Johann Merrick and Ryan Li were handing orders to the deck commanders, the remaining captains of the UNSA Second Fleet had begun hailing the UNSA Titan. An older man and woman had shown up on the holographic screen, each of them representing a ship from the fleet.

"Unknown ship, this is Captain Maureen Ferran of the UNSA Tigris. State your intentions this minute, or be shot down." The older woman had ordered.

"Captain Ferran, my name is Commander Sebastian Lyall of the UNSA Titan. My fleet are here to assist the UNSA in every way possible. We're on the same team, Captain Ferran."

Soon, the older man began to speak. "We have confirmation from Admiral Raines, Maureen. He's with us. Apologies, I'm Captain John Alder of the UNSA Retribution."

Commander Lyall smiled, and soon Admiral Raines had suddenly appeared on the holo-screen, and began issuing orders. The admiral himself had taken command from the AATIS tower, and had assumed control of the UNSA forces.

"All ships," Raines began. "We have confirmed sightings of SDF destroyers around Earth. All boats are ordered to the deep black."

As soon as everyone on the ships had heard the term 'deep black', they had begun to strap into their seats. Sebastian himself had began the process of strap himself to his chair, as the titanic ship began to move upwards. Sebastian could have swore that he felt his breakfast edging up his throat, and he quickly swallowed it down before he hurled it up on his crew.

Navigator Li had turned to face Sebastian. "We're go for launch, Commander." He stated.

"Take us upstairs."

The Titan was then on a completely vertical angle, and the engines thundered, louder than ever. The Titan began to push forward, breaking through the air resistance until it was at full speed. The smaller ships of the fleet had flown through the air faster than the super-carrier. Sebastian noted the UNSA Tigris and Retribution were accompanied by a squadron of SCAR Jackals flying alongside them.

Sebastian and the crew had gone silent, the quiet breaking from the occasional hull integrity update. They could all hear the sturdy metal moaning and creaking as the UNSA Titan broke through the atmosphere. The vertical Titan soon edged forward once more, and it finally returned to it's normal horizontal stature.

"Jesus Christ..." Merrick managed to sputter as he gazed at the immense size of the fleet of SDF destroyers that began to move toward the last line of defence, going to destroy all UNSA forces.

"All ships, fire at will!" Sebastian ordered.

The cannons and missile silos released their destructive payloads, massive shells and torpedoes flying forward into the unaware SDF fleet until one of their biggest destroyers blew up in a massive shockwave, unleashing a bright light as the drop-flight engine collapsed in on itself, tearing the SDF destroyer apart.

Sebastian picked up the microphone from the side of his chair once more, issuing more orders from the bridge. "All SCARS, report to the flight deck for immediate deployment. Repeat, all SCARS report to the flight deck!"

As soon as the fleet of UNSA ships unleashed their second payload, the SDF frigates and destroyers began to destruct in larger numbers, and the amount of enemy fighters seemed to drop off the radar as the UNSA SCAR pilots sped through space in their Jackal fighters, ripping through the Martian fighters as if they were wet paper.

"Commander, we have one last destroyer in the vicinity. Do we fire?" Li asked, priming one of the many weapons on the UNSA Titan.

"Fire the MAC cannon, lets send these Martian bastards a message." Sebastian ordered, watching with an almost sadistic glee as they prepared the massive cannon.

The MAC, otherwise known as the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, was the strongest weapon that the UNSA had created. The cannon would fire a slug of either depleted uranium or tungsten, at the speed of twelve thousand kilometres per second. The gun was so powerful that whatever shields a ship had, the slug would be guaranteed to shred or tear through whatever material stood in it's way.

There was a massive clap, almost a hundred times as loud as thunder. There was a noticeable blue ball speeding toward the final destroyer. Almost as soon as the slug ripped through the destroyer, there was a great explosion, and the bright orange light heralded the massive roaring and cheering of the bridge crew.

As soon as the cheering and the roaring had died down, Merrick's face seemed to turn from the greatest smile ever created, to the largest frown. He had turned to Sebastian as if he were to announce whatever had him so glum.

His reason seemed to appear right before them. Appearing right out of drop-flight, a humongous, almost titanic ship flew right over the Titan, almost colliding with the ship itself. The holo-screens began to crackle and shimmer orange, and the face of a young man with jet black hair appeared on the screen. The colour of his eyes were invisible, as the screen crackled. There was a massive scar running down his face, and from the colours of his uniform. The man looked and acted as if he were the high commander of the SDF itself. He soon began to announce himself.

"This is Admiral Salen Kotch of the Olympus Mons. You are defeated. Death is no disgrace!"

Sebastian was frantic, and as soon as UNSA Titan had turned around they could see the Olympus Mons laying waste to what was left of the original UNSA fleet. Retribution seemed to be about to drop-fly out of the combat zone until it turned around, flying on the Olympus Mons' flank. Tigris seemed to be drawing as much attention as it could. The wreckage of other UNSA ships flew around the vast darkness of space, and Titan had almost turned enough for a MAC shot.

A voice over the radio announced the Retribution's plan. "All UNSA forces, this is the Ret. Prepare for a tactical collision with the Olympus Mons."

The Tesla cannon on the top of the Olympus Mons seemed to be about to fire on the Tigris until the Retribution dashed its carrier-shaped structure against the super-carrier that was the Olympus Mons. As soon as the Retribution seemed to stop making contact with the Olymous Mons, the super-carrier managed to quickly drop-fly out of the combat zone.

Sebastian and the rest of the bridge crew could only stare at the carnage and destruction that the Olympus Mons had caused as Sebastian could only lay his eyes on the surviving two ships other than his own back in Geneva.

The Titan, Tigris and Retribution almost seemed to be stuck in place, unable to move, still in shock from the brutality that Salen Kotch and the SDF had caused.

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **And one more chapter to add to the history books!**_

 _ **~The Real Italian Stallion~**_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Recovery

"What the fuck did we just get hit by?" Elsa had asked.

Sebastian was silent. He was too busy trying to calculate the amount of soldiers that had just been lost, he was trying to figure out how many men and women had just been killed, how many families had just lost another family. Merrick and Li, were trying to contact the Retribution and the Tigris, but nothing was coming from either of them. The UNSA Retribution was completely silent, and Sebastian had come to the conclusion that there communication system was down temporarily.

"Sir, Captain Ferran is hailing us." Li said.

"Answer it." Sebastian replied. "Perhaps she knows if Retribution is still active."

The holo-screen had activated once more, but there was the occasional scatter of static on the screen. The regal figure of Captain Ferran stood tall amongst the chaos, with members of the Tigris trying to rewire and restart some of the bridge systems. Sebastian had noted the union jack shoulder patch on her uniform, and it reminded Sebastian of the times when he holidayed in Cornwall when he was younger. He hated it, and it reminded Sebastian why he would always prefer living in Melbourne.

"Captain Ferran, how bad are our losses?"

"It's not good, Commander Lyall. We've lost five destroyers and ten frigates after the attack from the Olympus Mons. We have no way of calculating the actual number of losses we have suffered, however what has just happened is a complete and utter loss of thirty-thousand plus lives. Make no mistake, we are now fighting a losing battle. The SDF have the upper hand."

Sebastian and Elsa grimaced at the estimated count of losses. With thirty-thousand lives lost in atmosphere and even more when the AATIS guns shot down the rest of the fleet, there was a pit in Sebastian's stomach, but that pit felt more like an ever-growing black hole. Even Captain Ferran seemed to wince as she said the number.

"Have we had any contact with the Retribution, Captain Ferran?" Sebastian asked.

"None, but I have received orders and we are to take a shuttle over to the Retribution for further information. Do you require a pick-up, Commander Lyall?"

"None at all, but thank you, Captain Ferran."

"Of course. Fair winds, Commander."

"Fair winds, Captain Ferran."

The holo-screen turned off, and everyone on the Titan seemed to turn to their commander, silently asking for their orders. Sebastian seemed to be standing stock still until he finally regained his voice.

"Navigator Li, begin surveys on all fighting members of the crew. We're gonna need every man and woman able to fight. Merrick, order all non-vital crew members to assist in repairs to the Titan. Spyglass, use the bots to assist in repairs as well and alert me if Admiral Raines contacts us personally whilst I'm on the Retribution. Chief Devereaux, you're with me."

Commander Lyall got up from his chair and marched off the bridge, with Gunnery Chief Devereaux following him. There were a few salutes from the men and women who were serving aboard the Titan. They had grim looks on their faces as they watched some officers were carrying occupied body bags to the cargo bay for transportation back to Earth.

Commander Lyall and Chief Devereaux were the only officers dressed in black, obscured and hidden by the sea of blues and greens and beige that were worn by other members of the crew. Commander Lyall seemed to be too preoccupied worrying about whatever would be said on the Retribution, whilst Chief Devereaux seemed to be trying to help as much as she could whilst still following the commander. As soon as they reached the elevator that would take them to the air bay, Chief Devereaux halted the elevator, the small platform slamming to a stop suddenly.

"You got a question, Chief?" Lyall asked.

"I want to know what's gotten you so shaken, Commander." 

"Is that a question, or a demand?"

"You know damn well which one, Seb." 

"Then you should know damn well what has gotten me so worried. We haven't even gotten reports of the losses we've just suffered, only estimates. We've lost pretty much the entire UNSA Second fleet and the Fourth Fleet is gone. Why? Because the Olympus Mons and that bastard, Salen fucking Kotch thought it was time to commit another genocide against Earth! You take one look at Mars right now and tell me if what they have now is better than before, because we were both there in the Secession Wars, Elsa. We both saw what the SDF did to our guys. What they did to the women was worse, you should know that, you were almost one of them!" 

"Don't bring up what happened on Deimos with me, Sebastian. I know perfectly well of the 'what ifs'. You know I'll never be able to repay you for what you did for me, so don't wave it in my face." Elsa quickly shot back, determined to shut down the argument.

Whenever Sebastian had brought up Operation Hacksaw in an argument with Elsa, she would feel immensely guilty. Sebastian had risked everything he had worked for just to save her, as he still believed in leaving no man behind. Elsa was one of the few soldiers left on Mars' moon during the failed takeover of Deimos.

The whole operation had been a mistake right from the start. The amount of troops that had been selected to take part on the takeover had been too small. UNSA command had believed that with enough support from the air, the UNSA Marines would have more than enough time to destroy the SDF resistance. Soon, marines took over and Operation Hacksaw had become a siege that was forced by the SDF. Wave after wave of soldiers dashed themselves against the UNSA's temporary defences, however they continued to break themselves against the marines. Soon, the SDF broke the outer defences and began to take injured marines away for 'rehabilitation'.

Intelligence received that 'rehabilitation' process was far worse. Men were separated from their female squadmates and immediately executed. Women were tortured, broken down until they could not fight any further and were made 'property' of the SDF. When the whistle had been blown on that piece of information and the public found out, there was an outcry for further fighting against the SDF.

The SDF's supply lines to Deimos seemed to be constantly attacked by an 'invisible' pirate force. Food and supplies that were being sent straight from Mars had been robbed by the 'invisible pirates'. Entire carriers and frigates were mysteriously disappearing, never to be heard from until at least month later, at which the SDF forces were close to starving to death. When several supply freighters had made it Deimos unmolested, the foods and supplies were handed out to the starving SDF soldiers. Throughout the month, the UNSA marines still on Deimos were fighting in ditches and foxholes around their supposed evacuation zone, with the scorched carcasses of Falcons and burnt metal bodies of Raven evacuation ships buried into the bullet-ridden and bombed-out expanse of land that was still occupied by the Marines.

When the SDF managed to dispense the food out to the fighting forces, they had never bothered to check for any poisons or toxins. SATO, or the Solar Associated Treaty Organisation were the forces who had hijacked the supply ships and poisoned the foodstuffs. Having become suspicious of the food, SDF forces began to starve themselves even further, and some began to suffer from malnutrition and even more began to die from starvation.

As soon as heavy reinforcements arrived from Mars, the 5th UNSA fleet dropped from Earth to Deimos. There was an enormous battle in the atmosphere, with the destroyer UNSA Minotaur began tearing through frigates and carriers. The one thing that Elsa could remember the most about the Deimos mission was not when Petty Officer Sebastian Lyall saved her life (although it was the most important) it was when the UNSA Minotaur made a tactical collision into a carrier that was directly above the battlefield. SDF bodies and steel fell from the sky as the Minotaur fired its payload into the carrier above the marines.

As soon as the battle was in full-swing, one of the capital ships, the UNSA Deadly released a barrage of bombs all over the battlefield and the other ships. As soon as the bombs hit the ground, they did not explode, but instead communications were absolutely devastated. It was chaos, both SDF forces and UNSA marines were cut off from communicating to the higher-ups. The SDF were annihilated when unmanned drones, constant airstrikes and other soldiers donning heavy-duty combat exo-skeletons began to trample onto the battlefield.

Marines began to pack onto transport aircraft to join their fellow crew members. At the time, when Elsa Devereaux was just a corporal, she was the last one on the battlefield. She had been caught off guard by a suit puncture. As she ran, she noticed her oxygen supplies running lower and lower as she ran. As soon as the last Raven took off, she had lost all hope, falling to her knees and beginning to scream. That was until Petty Officer Sebastian Lyall shot in front of her in a Jackal, laughing all the way as she climbed in.

The Sebastian Lyall in front of her was completely different from the one that had saved her on Deimos. Since he had become a commander, he had been different, but then she had to imagine how much rode on his commandeering of the fleet. The black admiral's dress that he wore was a symbol he was meant to wear with pride, as a monument to the soldiers and officers that had been enlisted to the UNSA, and Commander Sebastian Lyall was meant to be the idol to draw idealistic boys and girls into service. Some of the marines and sailors aboard the UNSA ships must have been just over sixteen, or seventeen.

No wonder why Sebastian had been so shocked when he found out that the fleet had been destroyed by the Olympus Mons.

"Elsa, I bring it up because what happened then has just happened now. The only difference there is that they didn't use Snowblind Missiles or poisoned food supplies. No, they threw the Olympus Mons at us, and we just took it. How many people have they killed in the space of five minutes?"

"I… I don't know." Elsa replied simply.

"Look, Elsa… I know that you know what it's like to lose men under your command. I felt it, whenever I see a Jackal get shot down in atmo, I feel grief because I know I will have to tell somebody's parents or wife, and tell them that I watched whilst they burnt to death in atmo." 

The rest of the walk to the shuttle was silent. Elsa and Sebastian didn't need to say anything to each other when they knew the silence would say it for them. Deimos had come up in conversations before, and the silence fixed it well enough before. The commander and the marine had been through thick and thin, and knew each other better than most. It was why he would always consult with Elsa depending on a choice or operation that he had authorised. It was why he was always the one that sought after constant agree just so his crew would never mutiny against him.

"I'm sorry, Elsa. It's just..."

"No, don't apologise. This has all just happened too fast. First it was Dan, and now this. How do we come back from this, Sebastian?" Elsa asked, looking to the older commander.

"We fight, we crawl and crawl until we can stand up to the SDF and fight back. We can't get up yet, but when we do… We'll kick their arses."

Sebastian and Elsa had quickly hopped off the elevator as soon as it had stopped. The air bay had the distinct smell of smoke and jet fuel. All around them, Grizzly Battle Tanks were rolling around, dragging themselves to their own bays, Orbital Drop Pods were being hooked towards the drop stations, ready for immediate deployment. Multiple air crews were directing Jackals, Ravens and Falcons towards repair crews and holding bays. The largest vehicles inside the air bays were the Pelicans and Condors, tank-like drop-ships that were meant for large amounts of troop deployment and heavy armour deployment respectively. The air crews saluted their superior officers before running back towards their assignments.

As they marched towards an empty Raven, Chief Engineer Harris Law handed Sebastian a touchpad which he attached to the wrist of his admiral's dress. The touchpad had began to highlight the new additions to the Titan's armoury. Multiple land vehicles such as Scorpion AA platforms, Mongoose All-Terrain quad bikes and the massive additions to the air-support section had almost made Sebastian smile.

"Like what you're seeing, sir?" Harris had asked, his Mancunian accent shining through slightly.

"Loving it, Law. How long until we get our bot divisions up and running?" Sebastian asked in response.

"Not long, sir. By the time you get back they should all be in tip-top condition. The Jackdaw Mech Dropships and the Elephant Land Carriers are all at one hundred percent capacity."

"And our air-support section?"

"Well, with the new budget that Top Cat gave us, we've got three new additions. We've got our Shortswords and Longswords. Those are our new air-strikers, for quick response mostly. The Longswords have orbital weapons to reduce risks of them falling into the SDF hands, sir."

"I've got a feeling you're keeping one secret, Law." Elsa spoke over the buzzing of saws and sparks of the jet engines.

"You know me well, Miss Devereaux. Project Blackbriar gave us our new Vultures."

As if to exemplify his revelation, one of the Vultures was rolling round on a wheeled platform. The entire ship looked as if it was built to take up an entire air bay on it's own. The great green giants had missile silos and machine guns almost on every inch of the structure. There were a pair of engines on each wing of the humongous gunship. One of the pilots must have been already attached to his new bird, as he had began to paint what seemed to be a warthog face on the nose of the new gunship.

"They are beauties, aren't they? Apparently we were using them wrong during the Secession Wars." Harris had mentioned, leading to odd looks from Elsa and Sebastian.

"We were using them in space when we should have been using them in atmosphere. The specs they were given were more useful on the ground then up in the deep black. Then again, the Secession Wars were years ago, and we've improved since then. Hopefully. I guess we'll see soon."

Law quickly tapped Sebastian on the shoulder, before running off and scolding two engineers who had started stripping one of the bots to pieces. Elsa and Sebastian smiled as they boarded one of the Ravens to the conference on the Retribution.

As soon as the pair boarded the aircraft, Elsa had a worried look on her face. She seemed to be unable to calm herself as she began to growl and glower at nothing in particular.

"You alright, Chief?" Sebastian asked.

"It's just…. I'm wondering how we come back from this. 30K lives lost in a matter of five minutes and we've got no defence except the AATIS on Earth, but if SetDef hacked that, who knows if they can do it to the entire system. Yeah, we have the fleets, but how much do you want to bet that they won't have even heard of what's happened because they're out of the Solar System?. What's our size of the fleet now? Three ships?"

Elsa had seemed to need to get it off her chest, as she took a deep breath once she had stopped speaking. The under-armour she was wearing seemed to cling to her even more, as if the armour was preparing itself for an attack at any time.

"We'll come back from this, Elsa."

"You think so, Commander?"

"I know it. We'll fight harder than them, we always will. We'll win." 

Elsa seemed to breathe easy, and moved over to the commander. After a few seconds, the female marine quickly placed her lips on Sebastian's cheek before removing them quickly. Sebastian could feel himself turn red as if he were a fifteen year-old. He placed his gloved hand over his cheek before placing it by his side and smirking to himself.

"Thanks for the confidence, Commander." 

"No problem, Chief." Sebastian continued to smirk.

As the Raven docked inside the far smaller Retribution, they were greeted once more by the smell of jet fuel and smoke, with the coppery smell in the air that both Sebastian and Elsa could identify as blood. Air crew members were fixing pieces of panelling on the walls, welding and soldering wires together to prolong the use. In one section of the air bay, the were lines and lines of body bags that seemed to be looked over by one marines, who held a bible to his chest. The marine wore an Irish flag on his shoulder armour and soon went on one knee to pray for the fallen.

"Hey, you Commander Lyall?" A rather large lady had shouted from the other end of the air bay.

"Yes, Commander Lyall and this is my Gunnery Chief Elsa Devereaux. You are?"

"Air Boss Laura Gibson. You looking for the bridge?" Before the pair could answer, Gibson had interrupted them. "Follow me."

Gibson definitely took the role as Air Boss seriously. She yelled out orders to other members of the crew as she escorted Sebastian and Elsa to the elevator to the bridge. As soon as the pair entered the elevator, Gibson waved them off before attending to her other duties.

"Why do you think we haven't heard anything from the Ret?" Elsa asked.

"They took a particularly heavy hit from colliding with the Olympus Mons. I wouldn't be surprised if the comms had gone down when they hit them. It did seem the Ret did more damaged to itself than to the Olympus." Sebastian had muttered the last sentence.

The pair grimaced as the elevator came to a halt. The went through the glass doors and walked onto the bridge. There was no captain's chair, and instead there was a tactical table replacing it. There were a few officers around the bridge, but not as many as on the UNSA Titan. Nick Reyes seemed to have taken command, with another SCAR operative acting as his second in command. Captain Ferran seemed to be there as well, making conversation with the two SCARs.

"Commander Lyall, I expect you've already spoke to Captain Ferran." Reyes began.

"Affirmative." Sebastian began. "She began by threatening my ship, but we got along from there." 

The elder Captain Ferran seemed to smile at the humorous remark. Reyes seemed to smirk and the SCAR next to him smirked as she continued typing on the console on the tactical table.

"It's nice to see you in person, Lieutenant Reyes..." 

"Captain, now." Reyes quickly added.

"From Lieutenant to Captain so quickly? I take it Captain Alder.." Elsa had began.

"He didn't make it." The other SCAR answered. "I'm Nora, but just call me Fever."

"Sir, Admiral Raines is on the line." One officer noted.

"Put him through." Reyes ordered.

All of the superior officers went over to the holo-screen that was on the bridge. The black screen was replaced with a much more sombre looking Admiral Raines.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's good to see you. Let me make our situation absolutely clear. We are now at war with the Settlement Defence Front. Due to Captain Alder's use of force, the enemy has been driven into retreat. At this time, Tigris, Titan and Retribution are the only available ships we have." Raines began.

"What about the Titan's Shield, sir?" Commander Lyall asked.

"I already told you this, Commander Lyall. The colonies outside of the Solar System are too valuable to lose now, and we've regained control of AATIS for now. Bar Fleets Two and Four, Fleets One to Fifteen plus the Shield." Raines finished.

"Affirmative, Admiral."

Raines began to speak again. "Our course of action moving forward is to buy Earth time, while we rebuild our fleet." 

"Understood Admiral, Tigris is prepared for tasking." Ferran affirmed.

"Today's attack was not limited to Geneva." Raines informed, leading to a sigh from Salter and Elsa. "SetDef launched a tactical strike on the Lunar Gateway Portal. Those cargo terminals receive freight critical to rebuilding the fleet. So your first mission is to retake the port."

"Roger that, Admiral." Reyes said, with a nod from Admiral Raines.

"Godspeed, Captains. Top Cat out." 

The screen then turned off, leaving the crew with a black screen and each other to create a plan. A large man, who must have been leader of the marines on the Retribution had made his presence known, towering over everybody else. His name was Usef Omar, and he seemed to hold a lot of confidence with the men and women of the Retribution if the stories from Elsa had been anything.

"We've got no viable air." Salter had began.

"Then we go without it." Omar interrupted. "It's how we do things in the infantry, Lieutenant."

Omar turned to see Elsa and Sebastian behind him, and he gave a small grin. "Lemme guess, your captain of the big bastard over there?" He pointed at the Titan.

"You'd be right. Commander Lyall, at your service. Next to me is Gunnery Chief Elsa Devereaux."

Omar had an even bigger smile on his face when he laid his eyes on Elsa. He shook hands with Sebastian and gave him a loud clap on the shoulder before going to Elsa. The man was clearly older than most of the officers, but not older than Ferran, who seemed to look as if she were in her sixties. Even Elsa seemed to smile as the older Briton seemed to be observing her with interest, looking at her as if he were looking down a rifle scope.

"Gunnery Chief, eh?" Omar chuckled. "I remember Devereaux, no doubt. The only Frenchy in my taskforce on Deimos. She was a fierce one. Saved my bacon once or twice. She your head of Marines, Commander?"

Before Sebastian could answer, Elsa had jumped to answer her former comrade. "Affirmative, sir. It'll be nice to work with you again, Staff Sergeant."

"I don't doubt it, Miss Devereaux."

Reyes cleared his throat, and a holographic projection of the Lunar Gateway appeared on the tactical console. Omar marked out where his marines would enter the Lunar Gateway, and Ferran circled the area where the Tigris would be providing support. Reyes marked out airspace that the SDF Ares Vales was attacking the Lunar Gateway, and finally Sebastian marked out multiple lines going directly above the Ares Vales.

"What are they?" Ferran asked.

"The Titan has a supply of Orbital Drop Pods. My Bullfrogs can get in, break through the armour and take down the Ares Vales from the inside while the marines break down the SDF occupying the Lunar Gateway."

"Bullfrogs?" Omar asked again.

"My Bullfrogs are the best soldiers in the UNSA. Similar to the Task Force 141 from the olden days. The very best Tier One operators from all around the world. There's only seventy-five of them, but each one is worth one hundred of those SetDef bastards. The moment I get back on the Titan, I'll talk to them."

The group of officers looked at each other, before analysing the plan for the final time. Ferran was the first to leave, and then it was Sebastian and Elsa that left finally. Omar seen them off before heading to the armoury, with Reyes and Salter following him.

Sebastian and Elsa then took the elevator to the air bay of the Retribution back to the Raven. They quickly boarded, and they were soon on their way back to the Titan.

"Commander?"

"Chief?"

"You think Captain Winters will join the Bullfrogs on the mission?" Elsa asked.

"He's been itching for a fight ever since Europa happened. The moment we get back on the Titan, go find him and tell him to prep." Sebastian had ordered.

"Yessir." 

As soon as the Raven was taken into the Titan and grabbed by the mechanical arms that helped land the aircraft, Sebastian and Elsa had left and gone off. Elsa had gone off to find Captain Jack Winters, leader of the Bullfrogs and to prepare them for their mission.

Meanwhile, Sebastian marched up to the bridge. He took his seat at the centre of the bridge, with expectant looks from both Merrick and Li. "Where to, sir?" Li asked.

"Lunar Gateway, Navigators."

There was a loud rumbling from the engines, and the drop pillars rose from the Titan's structure. They began to glow bright blue until the drop engines were at full power, which they were then a dark purple. The engines thundered, and the Titan threw itself to the Moon.

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **Sorry for the delays, been busy with my HP fic at the moment. This however, is a lot easier to create material for. I hope you don't have a problem with the OC's and whatever else is created by me for the purpose of the story.**_

 _ **Should probably say this sooner or later, but I DON'T OWN CALL OF DUTY: INFINITE WARFARE OR ANY CHARACTERS FEATURED IN IT EXCEPT MY OWN.**_

 _ **~The Real Italian Stallion~**_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Ares Vales

Captain Alex Winters was cleaning his NV4 rifle, fixing every blemish and speck of dust that appeared on the base of the weapon. He was meant to be the idol that the Bullfrogs looked up to, to be the warrior that all soldiers should be proud to be. He knew that he was chosen to be the leader of the most dangerous men on the planet, the most dangerous men in the Solar System is what they were. Marksmen, specialists, special operators, some men were even more dangerous than Alex Winters was at his best. He lead them because they respected him, and they showed it with their loyal service to him, and to a further extent, Commander Lyall.

As he sat in the war room, cleaning his rifle and attaching his EVO sight to the rifle, he noticed that a few of the Bullfrogs had marched in too. They were prepped, with rifles and shotguns and pistols at the ready. He quickly shouldered his rifle and marched over towards them. Alex walked over to his second-in-command, Sergeant Major Yumiko Imagawa, who was talking to two other Bullfrogs, who had quickly ran off for something else.

"Yumi, what's happening?" Alex asked.

Yumiko placed the two Kendall 44 pistols on the edge of the tactical map and looked at her commanding officer. She wore a black bodysuit, and a small tactical vest strapped over it. There were knee-pads and holsters, but the most noticeable part of her uniform was the hood. It covered most of her hair and face, leaving the striking green eyes and outline of her hair able to be seen. She soon checked the magazines inside the two pistols and holstered them on her hips. She began marking out drop-zones above the SDF destroyer above the Lunar Gateway.

"Yumi? Did you hear me?"

"Heard you, busy at the moment." Yumiko simply replied.

Alex tilted his head, but he was used to Yumiko Imagawa being like that. Whenever she wasn't obsessing over a mission or her own weapons, she was a great friend to have but when the mission was concerned, she was like a robot.

 _Just like I taught her. She's paying attention._ Alex thought as he observed the orbital drop plans.

Soon, Yumiko stopped marking the plans. She turned and looked at her commanding officer. "Finished now. Received orders from Commander Lyall. Hijack SDF Ares Vales and disable it to stop attack on Lunar Gateway." Yumiko finished, staring at Alex.

Alex Winters and Yumiko Imagawa simply stared at each other as the other Bullfrogs analysed the battle-plan. The two Bullfrogs were a lot more experienced than most of the others, mainly because they were the first Bullfrogs that had been placed on the UNSA Titan. It was good to be one of the seventy-five of them. They were the most dangerous soldiers in the Solar System, they were famous before they joined the UNSA, and they were famous afterwards.

Although there were seventy-five of them, the Bullfrogs acted as if they were an oversized group of friends, and if not that, brothers and sisters. They were all from different countries, groups, religions and backgrounds, and the group as a whole represented the main ideals of the UNSA.

Unity.

Although the unity of the Solar System was undergoing a little maintenance.

That, and they were focusing on settling outside of the Solar System until they could regain control of Mars and take back the other planets.

"Bullfrogs, huddle in!" Alex began.

The Bullfrogs huddled around the tactical map, each of them able to gain a minimal view of the tactical map. Below the Ares Vales was the Lunar Gateway, where the marines and SCARs were infiltrating to clear out the SDF from the Moon. Yumiko had taken to standing at Alex's side, silently analysing the plan whilst changing the various flaws it had.

"We've received word from Commander Lyall that those SetDef bastards have attacked the Lunar Gateway and are currently holding it under siege. We won't be going in to relieve the Coast Guard."

There was a flood of sighs and groans, from the Bullfrogs who had hoped that it would be a time to take the fight to the SDF.

"But, we still have a mission to do. Above the Moon there is a SetDef destroyer, Ares Vales. The destroyer is the ship that his providing reinforcements and is providing bombardment to stop the Coast Guard from fighting back. The Bullfrogs will use the Orbital Drop Pods that the UNSA have so gracefully provided to us. The Titan will fly over the Ares Vales and we will enter the Ares Vales from the pods."

There was a surge of shouts and screams, filled with happiness as the Bullfrogs finally realised that they would gain their first meal of revenge. They yelled and howled, either heading to the armoury to prep, or to the vehicle bay. Soon, it was only Alex and Yumiko left.

The pair headed to the elevator to get to the vehicle bay. As soon as they entered the elevator, they were joined by four other Bullfrogs. Commander Lyall had tried to find missions for the Bullfrogs to take part in, mostly small pirate eliminations, but there was not enough SDF take-down missions for them.

The Bullfrogs had been assembled to be the answer to the massive amount of SDF troops that the Mars had been able to conjure from seemingly nowhere. Fleets of destroyers and frigates and carriers had been created by the Martians in such a small space of time, the only way the amount of ships being created that fast was due to the amount of people working and the amount of materials.

Which for Mars, none of them were in short supply.

"Are you gonna be joinin' us, sir?" One of them asked.

"Damn right I am. Been a while since I've killed some SetDef. They've got it coming..." 

"Damn right, sir!" Another one yelled.

The elevator stopped and the six Bullfrogs began to jog out, with Alex and Yumiko at the back, following the group of Bullfrogs. Some were chatting and talking before they entered the pods, and some where already tucked in with their partners. Commander Lyall had been seen observing the crew, watching for slip-ups or achievements. He had soon moved from his perch to where the drop pods were. The Bullfrogs had began to salute and cheer as they saw their commanding officer. He came up to the final pod, and caught Alex and Yumiko before they could enter.

"Captain Winters, Master Sergeant Imagawa. I hope you know what I'm expecting from you before you drop." Commander Lyall began.

The commander was dressed to impress. The admiral's dress he wore was a rare one. A jet black uniform with the white shoulder, elbow and leg patches. His chest was adorned with various medals and ribbons of his service in the UNSA. He could see so many colours, ribbons from all countries that had praised his service, America, the UK, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and some from Africa. There was a Medal of Honour, two DSCs, a DSM and a multitude of Purple Hearts. The fact that he still looked so young for someone who had seen so much war was a blessing of his genetics, for he still looked as if he were in his twenties, even though he was in his late thirties.

"Precision and perfection, Commander." Yumiko replied.

"Precision and perfection, Commander." Alex managed to repeat.

"Exactly. I don't want nobody dead because we didn't remember that. Don't worry about the battle going down on the Moon. Focus on taking the Ares Vales out of the equation. Am I clear?"

"Crystal." The pair of Bullfrogs replied.

"Good. Fair winds to all of you." The commander finished, before pacing back up to the bridge of the Titan.

Alex and Yumiko entered the drop pod, placing their weapons in the side holders and strapping themselves into the pod, so much so that they couldn't move anything but their arms, to check the systems of the drop pod itself. Screens deployed themselves in front of the Bullfrogs, informing them once more of the plan to hijack the SDF Ares Vales.

The one good thing about the drop-pods was that they broke through metal infrastructure easily. The batteries of the SDF destroyers were the least protected areas of the ships, and the UNSA Titan would fly directly over the Ares Vales, unleashing it's collection of drop-pods onto it. The Bullfrogs would fight throughout the ships, until they took the bridge. They would scuttle the Ares Vales and use the ship for scrap metal.

The only thing Alex didn't like was the fact that the radio was blaring every five seconds. It was the one flaw of the Bullfrogs. They chatted like they were schoolgirls.

"Coast Guard put up a good fight..." One said.

"Course they did, it's the Moon!" Another replied.

"Well, it was better late then never..."

"Why don't you show some damn respect, Romeo?"

"Just sayin', Dutch. They missed one, you know, the destroyer right below us?" 

"No, they left it for us."

The great steel doors closed over the pods, enclosing the pairs of Bullfrogs in their steel cages. There was howling and screeching over the radio, and it made the Bullfrogs sound more like wild beasts rather than elite soldiers. The screens on each side of the pod lit up, with Commander Lyall on the right screen and a reflection of Alex on the left, talking to all other Bullfrogs. Soon, Commander Lyall began speaking, and there was silence over the radio.

"Latest intel reports that SDF troops are falling back to the Ares Vales." Commander Lyall started.

"They're pulling back, why?" Alex asked.

"You're not gonna find out up here, are you Captain?" Lyall shot back in response.

Two scaffolds outstretched into the deep dark space, with large amounts of bodies and wreckage floating around below the Bullfrogs. Directly below the Titan, was the SDF destroyer Ares Vales. In a second, all the pods were released, dropping at an intense speed that no other vessel could match. The armada of drop-pods nose-dived, with the Ares Vales still directly below them, oblivious to the mounting danger that continued to shoot towards it. As the pods fell, the radio chatter came back.

"I take it back, the Coast Guard got it's ass kicked!" The one named Romeo remarked.

"Hey, Romeo?" Alex began.

"Yeah, boss?" 

"Remember when I told you to shut your mouth that one time? Consider it a standing order." Alex uttered, and Romeo was soon silent.

Alex took hold of the rudder in front of him, and began to swerve the drop-pod closer and closer towards the destroyer. The Ares Vales' guns fired, and large flashes of light made spots in Alex's eyes. The large black and red ship was getting closer and closer, with some of the drop-pods. There was a loud blaring inside the pod, and radiation levels began to rise suddenly.

"Shit, did they set off a nuke?" Romeo asked.

There was a small tinge of blue surrounding the Ares Vales, and soon Alex realised that the Ares Vales was trying to drop out of the combat zone. Alex shoved the rudder forwards towards the second weakest part of the ship.

The drop-engine.

Yumiko clung to the metal structure of the pod, whispering something in Japanese as Alex pushed the pod as far towards the drop-engine as he could. More and more pods made contact with the Ares Vales, and over the radio were the yells and battle cries of the Bullfrogs as they tore through the SDF troops on the Ares Vales.

Soon the drop-pod made contact with the ship, drilling through the layers of metal until it couldn't drill through any more. The pod had stopped, directly planting itself halfway through the drop-engine, completely annihilating the Ares Vales' drop-engine.

"All teams, drop-engine for Ares Vales is down." Yumiko stated over the radio, unleashing her pistols from the holsters.

"All good, let's get this done." 

Alex took his rifle from the holder and broke the door off the drop-pod. The various armed engineers were dumbstruck, staring at the drop-pod that just crashed into the drop-engine of the Ares Vales. Alex took aim with his rifle and let loose a hail of bullets, tearing through the engineers that would have shot them if they were struck dumb with shock from their amazing entrance.

Yumiko then hopped out, admiring the work of Alex's rifle. As they began to march through the halls of the Ares Vales. As the pair worked there way through the ship, the other Bullfrogs continued to state which parts of the ship that had been taken down. The first area was the drop-engine, considering that there was a drop-pod lodged in it, and the next area which had been cleared was the gun batteries, as ten of the Bullfrogs tore through the SDF forces. Hails of gunfire and slices and stabs could be heard from over the radio, each one of them leading to another dead SDF trooper.

"Titan, this is Rogue Actual." Alex started. "Ares Vales is unable to drop. Working to the bridge now."

"Affirmative." Spyglass, the Titan's AI replied.

At first, Jack had been a little worried about having a functional AI onboard the Titan. It had mostly stemmed from what he had heard from others, who apparently had friends in the Artificial Intelligence Development centres. Tales of going rogue were common, but apparently were never true. It seemed that Spyglass had been a successful AI, so much so that it had been allowed to be placed on the UNSA Titan. From the amount of work that Spyglass put up with (which was a lot), it was a surprise to most of the crew that it never just gave up, which was probably what most of the crew would have done if they were in Spyglass' position.

"Captain Winters," Spyglass began. "Bullfrogs Romeo and Dutch have taken down the storage and cargo bay. Around fifteen percent of the Ares Vales is under control of Bullfrog forces."

Alex had a wide grin on under the helmet and mask he wore. Yumiko hadn't made any indication of the happiness she probably had, or at least that was what Alex thought. Yumiko was a much more serious crew member than most of the other Bullfrogs. She was firmly against the SDF, even more than most others. Maybe some members of the UNSA had lost brothers, sisters, fathers or mothers to the SDF, but Yumiko Imagawa had experienced what had happened on Mars first hand.

Yumiko Imagawa was a Martian, born to Japanese workers. In UNSA terms, she was what was called a defector, someone who had arrived from Mars to serve under the SDF. She was the only Martian that had been aboard the Titan. She never told anyone why she came from Mars to join the UNSA, and the only person that knew why was Alex Winters himself.

As they paced through the Ares Vales, Alex could not help but feel claustrophobic. He had managed to get past overreacting to it, and he no longer screamed and cried whenever he was in an enclosed space. If anything, the only thing that concerned him was that if the Ares Vales decided to crash itself down in the Lunar Gateway as a last ditch effort to cut off Earth's supply lines.

"All Rogues, this is Rogue Actual. Target is the bridge, we take the bridge and we scuttle this boat."

With a wave of 'affirmatives', Alex and Yumiko continued to pace through the Ares Vales. A few groups of SDF troopers tried to take them down, but they were quickly cut down by a hail of bullets. Some of them tried to take Alex and Yumiko down in close quarters, but were made victim to Yumiko's extensive hand-to-hand combat skill. She punched one in the face before blowing his brains out and moving onto the next, which she then tripped one up and crushed his throat under her boot. Another once charged with a knife, and in response Yumiko holstered her pistols and threw herself forward. She leapt into the air, and wrapped her legs around the soldier's neck and began to throw punches and elbows directly onto the man's head. She soon wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled, snapping the man's neck.

Yumiko continued through the cold hallways of the ship, not stopping to wait for Alex. As he soon caught up with her, more Bullfrogs had began to speak over the radio, each one of them announcing another area of the ship had been completely cleared of SDF forces. Alex had not been surprised when he never heard a single word about a Bullfrog being one of the casualties, so he could only predict that he had not lost a single soldier still. He was proud of his men, as he knew they were the best of the best, and they would never go down to some SDF bastards.

Soon, ten Bullfrogs had managed to regroup with Alex and Yumiko. They were silent, killing SDF soldiers as if they were the vengeful ghosts and spirits of every dead man, woman and child that had been killed during the SDF ambush on Earth. They all wore black armour and tactical gear, and carried various types of weapons. Some were encumbered in heavy armour and padding, walking tanks that soaked up all the punishment and doled it twice as quick. Some of them wore something equivalent to what Yumiko was equipped with. Black bodysuits with small tactical vests and their own little identifiers akin to Yumiko's hood. Patches, carvings and tags that marked out who was who. Yumiko had seemed to be the one who had began the trend, with her iconic hood being always drawn up to cover her face.

"All Bullfrogs," Spyglass said robotically. "Bullfrogs Romeo and Dutch have taken down the life support systems. Recommend using anti-gravity tactics from now on."

"You heard the bot, masks on from now on." Alex ordered, and the masks and helmets that the Bullfrogs wore sealed themselves, saving their oxygen supply.

Two more Bullfrogs had arrived, making the group twelve Bullfrogs. Alex could only assume that the two new Bullfrogs were Romeo and Dutch, and he could tell because of much they bickered like an old married couple. Yumiko merely growled as they spat stupid insults at each other, as she waited to pounce on whoever waited on the other side of the door which led to the bridge of the Ares Vales. Alex was busy looking at the touchpad, surveying wherever the other Bullfrogs were. He could see that three Bullfrogs named Mickey, Buck and Dare had taken over the medical bay, and that one Bullfrog named Rook had taken down the armoury on his own, leaving it in flames. From what else Alex could see, most of the other Bullfrogs were either busy eliminating the remnants of the staff on the Ares Vales or they were making there way to the bridge. Soon, more and more Bullfrogs had began forming up with the original group, reforming what looked more like the original group of seventy-five Bullfrogs.

"Life support is off everywhere except the bridge. Expect resistance, and don't get sloppy. I want the captain alive, but if not, take him down." Alex ordered. "Yumiko, you have the door."

Yumiko took a demolition charge from one of the other Bullfrogs and placed it on the steel door that separated them from the bridge. There was a massive crack, and the steel door collapsed in on itself. The Bullfrogs charged in, shooting and stabbing at any of the bridge crew that dared to fight back. Soon, most of the crew had either surrendered or been killed except the captain.

Captain Bradley Fillion turned around to face the soldiers who had arrived into his ship and killed his crew. He seemed to have kept his calm until he drew his knife and pistol and charged.

It didn't take long for Alex, Yumiko and the other Bullfrogs to pepper his body full of lead.

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **Conor McGregor bites the dust. Next chapter will be the detailing the marines and how they fared on taking back the Lunar Gateway from the SDF.**_

 _ **Don't forget to read, favourite, follow and review!**_

 _ **~The Real Italian Stallion~**_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Luna

Before the attack on Earth, Lieutenant Nick 'Raider' Reyes had been taking orders from the late Captain Alder.

After fending off the attack and losing ninety-nine percent of the fleet, Nick Reyes had been promoted to the rank of Commander and was made acting Captain of the UNSA Retribution.

It was a big jump from Lieutenant to Commander. Before, Nick was just responsible for the lives of the SCAR members on the UNSA Retribution, and now he was responsible for all lives on the carrier class ship. Nick knew he wasn't exactly ready for the responsibility, but he was smart enough not to constantly mention it to his crew. He knew that if he said that he wasn't ready, they would doubt him.

He knew that some of them wouldn't doubt him, Nora definitely wouldn't, she was his best friend, and his best pilot. She had pulled his ass out of the frying pan numerous times, so often that Nick had lost count. Sometimes he wondered if he was even ready to be the leader of the SCAR forces on the Retribution. He never knew why he was even a commissioned officer, but then he remembered he was one to make his family proud. His father had been one of the unlucky Winslow Accord Cyber-Soldiers that had been affected by the Corvus Incident, and Nick was only five when he witnessed his father absent-mindedly murder his mother with a knife, and he could only watch in stupefied terror, unable to stop him.

Ever since that traumatic time, Nick had wanted to do right in the world. He wanted protect the weak and innocent, to defend those who could not defend themselves. It was why he always would remember first signing up to the UNSA. It was why he would always remember being deployed on his first mission to Titan to fight against the SDF during the Secession Wars, when Mars finally rebelled against the UNSA, and Earth as a whole. He would always remember killing his first man, caving the man's skull in before unloading three bullets into his head.

Sometimes he wondered that if what he was doing was right, sometimes he wondered if he had made a mistake in joining the UNSA. Then he would remember what the SDF represented to the Earth as a whole.

Complete subjugation and destruction.

Nick had been in a Jackal alongside Eth3n when the Olympus Mons first made its appearance. He had been shooting down SDF Skelters when the massive ship unleashed its Tesla Cannon on the remnants of the UNSA fleet. It would be a sight he would never forget. He just would not be able to forget the sight of so many UNSA destroyers and frigates go down in such a short space of time. He would never forget when Salen Kotch hacked every single communication channel of the UNSA and announce the fate of the UNSA.

'Death is no disgrace.'

 _The words of a fool. Death is the disgrace of every soldier. It means you weren't good enough._ Nick's thoughts echoed in his head, he could never say that though, unless he wanted to get punched in the face by every member of his crew.

Nick was determined to dole out as much punishment as possible, to as many SDF troopers as possible. It was why he would refuse to be any ordinary captain, he was SCAR operative, he could fight as well as any marine. It was why he wanted to get his boots on the moon and start kicking ass.

He marched off the bridge with Salter by his side, his loyal companion. She was of the same mind as Nick, she wanted to kick some ass, but she felt even more strongly about it. Nora was not afraid to say her opinions, she would openly say what she wanted, which would sometimes land her in hot water with Nick, or even in some cases, Captain Alder.

But Nick was captain now, and he would run the ship differently. They were at war with the SDF, at war with Mars, and words didn't mean anything when people were being openly massacred. As they rode the elevator in silence, Nick threw the silence to order Eth3n to go to the well deck. Nick had became a rather firm supporter of Eth3n, he was like every other soldier, aside from him being a big steel body with a fiery blue eye that carried a massive minigun wherever he went. He'd made his home on the Retribution, and had become a fast ally to the other members of the crew.

The one person that didn't see an ally in Eth3n was Staff Sergeant Omar.

As soon as Nick, Salter and Eth3n had arrived on the well deck, they were shot at with barbs from some marines. The main one was Todd Kashima, the tall and somewhat handsome Canadian who was standing on the top of one of the Leopard trucks. There was enough space for all of them, but the barbs and shots that were being fired from Kashima made it hard for Salter to not punch him in the face.

"Stow it, Todd. He's your captain now." Omar ordered, and the Canadian soon was silenced.

"Yessir! Sorry, captain."

"Apology accepted, Private." 

The marines began to get into the Leopard trucks, either standing on the seats so they could aim their rifles as the truck drove on the moon's surface. Eth3n was about to sit down until Omar blocked him from doing so.

"What is the drone here for?" Omar asked.

"Respectfully, Staff Sergeant, I'm a bot, not a drone sir. Deserving attempt at humour, sir." Eth3n quickly replied.

"Don't call me sir. I work for a living." 

Omar pushed Eth3n aside and took the drivers seat. He placed his hand on the scanner and the engine growled in response as it started. Eth3n took a hold of one of the handgrips on the truck, and Nick's eyes widened as the metal began to collapse in on itself as Eth3n's hand crushed the handhold. Nick took the gunner position at the back of the truck, stowing his rifle and holding tight to the handhold with both hands.

Eth3n looked at Nick. "What're the rigs we're wearing for sir?" 

Before Nick could answer, Salter had already started. "They help boost your jumps, and control in zero-g environments."

"Don't you know all this, Eth3n?" Nick asked.

"Affirmative sir, but I find the lieutenant's voice… Soothing." 

The marines gave a few laughs as Eth3n's eyeflap raised in a suggestive manner, and Salter was in shock at being semi-flirted at by a robot. Nick gave a few chuckles as well before Omar's voice silenced everyone else.

"Eyes up on your HUDS, be briefed or be sorry!"

"Staff Sergeant!" Everyone replied back.

"Earth's Lunar Gateway Port is currently under-siege. To defend it, the Retribution will insert two teams. Alphas and Bravos, ones and twos. Our primary objective is to take back the port. Oorah?"

"Oorah!" Everyone yelled.

"Masks on!"

The well deck doors began to open, and Nick quickly slammed the visor down as the oxygen left the well deck.

As soon as the well deck had opened, it had given the marines a glimpse of the chaos that had erupted on Luna. SDF Skelters flew without opposition, laying waste to anything that looked remotely Earth. Two of the Skelters flew past, firing at the Retribution. One unlucky marine took a bullet to the head from one of the Skelter's machine guns and fell to the floor before being sucked into the harsh vacuum of space.

"We're hot!" 

"Gator, cut the cord!"

The trucks flew out of the well deck at an amazing speed. Almost immediately a bomb went off in front of Nick and Alpha Two was out of action, completely obliterated. The three remaining trucks had managed to make it down to the Luna's surface. The trucks made contact with the ground, and Nick swore he thought he was going to fall off at some point. As soon as they flew over the hill that hid the port from them, another truck was hit, leaving only Bravo Two and Alpha One the only functional teams on the moon. They drove down the hill and began to go even faster.

Nick could just see the Retribution and the Tigris pulling away from the port, before firing on the SDF Ares Vales. The Ares Vales seemed to be firing too, until it completely stopped. Soon, the SDF destroyer seemed to plummet into a nose-dive, but not towards the port itself, but on the land around it. The massive ship made a crater in the moon's surface, and wasn't going anywhere soon.

Out of nowhere, a SDF truck crashed into the truck Nick was in, and threatened to hurtle them off the road. Nick quickly drew his Karma-45 and fired at the soldier who popped out to fire at him. Bullets hit the body of the car, and Nick soon managed to shoot the soldier, who fell back into the truck as it veered off the road and into a fuel tank.

"Bravo, break right!"

Brooks, the Irish corporal in the other car quickly switched direction and managed to make it into the port. Omar kept his cool as the explosions and bullets from other trucks kept trying to end their attempt at taking back the port.

The truck threw itself to the left, and directly at a window of the port, and Omar stepped on the gas. The truck forced itself to go faster, and leapt through the air and crashed through the heavy glass. The lack of gravity had slowly began to drag the truck back outside, and Nick tried to grab onto something, anything, that could keep him inside the port.

Luckily, the steel walls crashed down, covering the entrance. The gravity came back on and the truck stopped moving completely. Omar got out first, grabbed Nick by the wrist and dragged him from the wreckage and handed him his Karma-45.

"Effective driving, Staff Sergeant." Eth3n commented, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Stay out of my, Eth3n." 

The group of soldiers made their way to the nearby airlock, where they grouped up and waited for the oxygen and gravity systems to turn on for the rest of the port. As soon as the door seals hissed and were pressurised, the soldiers pushed their masks upward and breathed the artificial air. As soon as they opened the steel door to the terminals, they were shocked by what awaited them on the other side.

Piles and piles of bodies were thrown on top of each other, some beginning to decompose. Each of them were shot multiple times in the back, every one of them had their eyes open. Nick kept his composure but still felt the bile and vomit rising in his throat as he marched past them.

 _God damn monsters…_ Nick thought as he followed Salter, Omar and the other marines.

They could hear mild chattering in the background, the heavy growls and shouts of Martians. The marines took cover and began to line up shots, aiming at Martian heads. Omar's hand dropped and a barrage of bullets flew through the air and the SDF soldiers dropped like flies. The marines continued to move up as they mopped up the remaining Martians that were trapped in the port.

Soon the firing outside stopped, and all the SDF vehicles had either been stopped or destroyed. Some of the Coast Guard had fought back and began to apprehend the troops. There were still some minor skirmishes outside, but were soon stopped. Nick had been thankful of what the Titan Bullfrogs had done, as it had really turned the tide of the battle. Nick turned to the right, and could see little dots moving away from the wreckage of the destroyer Ares Vales. A large dropship, even larger than a Raven had landed on the Moon. Nick had never seen one of those ships.

"Condors." Kashima said, and Nick turned to the Canadian. "Heavy pick-up and long-range transport ship. Seen a lot of 'em growin' up."

As the marines continued to eliminate the last of the SDF on the Moon, they came across even more chaos. A reaper drone must have began to kill of the resistance inside the port, but one absolute hero had taken it upon himself and drove his broken rifle through the main control panel of the drone. If what the scans from the Retribution had shown, the remnants of the Coast Guard and the workers had holed up in Concourse D.

"Reyes, Salter, Kashima, open the door." Omar ordered.

The three soldiers stowed their rifles and began to push the heavy security door upwards. The Coast Guard that were armed had aimed at the four soldiers but managed to keep their cool long enough to realise that the soldiers were the UNSA that had come to save them.

"Hold your fire, friendly marines. We're here to help!" Kashima yelled.

There were sighs of relief as the Coast Guard let go of their weapons. Soon, Brooks and some of the other marines came from the other direction, confirming that the SDF presence had been eliminated from the Moon and Earth. There were more sighs of relief, and the three UNSA ships began to land and offer aid and supplies to help rebuild until the resource chain on Earth was fixed.

As Reyes, Salter, Omar, Brooks, Eth3n, Kashima and the marines piled onto the Raven to take them back to the Retribution, he gave a small smile to the Coast Guard that had managed to defend their fellows from the savage SDF attack.

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **Sorry for the late update, writers block is a bitch and For Honor really takes over your life when you love playing as a Knight. I can promise more updates in the future however.**_

 _ **~The Real Italian Stallion~**_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Hellas

Sebastian waited patiently inside the air-bay, until the Condor arrived in the bay. The seventy-five Bullfrogs that obliterated the crew of the Ares Vales were chattering away, as if they hadn't just took down an SDF destroyer without any casualties. Some of them looked as if they hadn't even been on a battlefield, whilst some of the others were almost caked in blood and sweat. Sebastian didn't care if they were caked in blood or sweat or whatever, as long as they got the job done and came back alive, he didn't care how they did their job.

Soon, Yumiko and Alex had marched out of the Condor as the engines of the enormous aircraft's engines turned off, leaving the hustle and bustle of the air bay to overtake the silence. Yumiko was straight-faced as always, whilst Alex was busy cleaning his knife of blood. The two were complete opposites, but they still worked extremely well together, at least better than most. The two soldiers continued walking over to Sebastian until they got close enough to report.

"Winters, Imagawa, where's Captain Fillion?" Sebastian asked.

Alex was about to answer, but was interrupted by Yumiko. "He went down fighting, Commander."

Sebastian seemed to register the information quickly. "Did you recover any information from the ship?"

Winters handed Sebastian a hard drive, with some wires still attached. "Data core from the bridge, dunno what it contains, could be info, could be porn." Winters shrugged, before going silent.

Sebastian nodded. "Dismissed." He said, and the two other soldiers marched off to the social quarters.

Sebastian examined the core for a bit before walking through the calm chaos that was the Titan's air bay. Although it may have looked like chaos, it always had done. It always looked chaotic and rebellious, yet the crew always got the job done. Just like his soldiers, Sebastian didn't care how it looked, as long as it got done.

The commander marched into the elevator and continued to examine the data core, and his own curiosity began to fill his mind. What would be on the core? Valuable data for the war effort? Ship locations? Battle plans? Sebastian's mind wandered in the silence, until Chief Engineer Law hopped onto the elevator alongside the commander.

Law saluted quickly. "Commander Lyall." 

"Chief Law. You think we decrypt this on the bridge?" Sebastian handed it to the older engineer.

Law began to pull at the wires and tap the core, peeling back pieces of metal until he handed it back to the commander with a smile. The elevator stopped and he hopped off on the armoury.

"Give it to Spyglass now, should be able to crack it without blowing it up." Law said, before skipping to the warrant officer nearby.

Sebastian felt oddly weary of the core after what Law had said. If he hadn't been lucky enough to find Law, would the core possibly have destroyed the ship? Sebastian dreaded the mere thought of the Titan crashing, Earth's chance of survival would have dropped massively if that happened.

The elevator began moving again until it got to the bridge, and Sebastian marched on. He took his seat and threw the core to Merrick, who merely looked at it with raised eyebrows.

"Place it in the conn, Merrick."

"You sure, sir?" 

"Sure." The Scot placed it in neatly. "Spyglass, crack the core and display info."

"Affirmative." The AI replied. 

The core was cracked in under twenty seconds, a sign of Spyglass' mighty power. The AI had become a highly reliable ally to the crew, processing all the calculations and probabilities of maintenance and battle. At first, Sebastian had been reluctant about using the AI, but soon he got used to him, just like the rest of the crew.

The holo-screen popped up with a massive map of the Solar System. Around Mars and it's moons was a massive wave of red, identifying the SDF base, whilst Earth and the Moon were highlighted in bright blue. The other planets soon appeared afterwards, with Pluto taking its time as it still was busy deciding whether it was a planet or not. Finally, red crosses appeared on the map of the system, surrounding Pluto, Venus, Neptune and Europa.

"Spyglass, what are we looking at?" Sebastian asked.

The robot replied immediately. "What the data core holds was the location of each key destroyer on the SDF Eighth Fleet. These vessels hold key members of the SDF forces and eliminating them would readily improve our chances of defeating the SDF. I would highly recommend taking them down in order to increase our chances of victory by over sixty percent. That is just my opinion however." 

_I do wonder who put the self-awareness module in Spyglass' hardware…_ Sebastian thought.

"Of all the ships, which is the one that poses the biggest threat?" Sebastian asked.

"SDF Hellas. Shipping manifest contains multiple supplies of deadly chemical bases. In short, the SDF are most likely creating a chemical or biological weapon."

Nodding, Sebastian swiped away the holo-screen and began to speak. "Navigators, drop to Venus."

"Yessir," Li and Merrick replied.

 **X-X-X**

Sebastian had suited up in combat gear and had began to prepare for boarding the Hellas. Although it had been a long time since Sebastian had been part of the combat. He trained regularly, kept his fighting and shooting skills on point, but he never had need to use them as he led from the bridge most of the time.

Sebastian placed the Hailstorm revolver in his side holster and shouldered his Bal-27 rifle. Sebastian loved the classics, but sometimes they just needed a little update. If he could, he would have kept a Hailstorm on his hip at all times. It was the gun that saved his life on multiple occasions.

He marched out of the armoury and met up with First Lieutenant Slade Jones, the leader of the SCAR division on the Titan. He was a small man, but he was extremely fit. The way Sebastian would describe it, he would have to say that it looked like Slade Jones' muscles had muscles. As Sebastian made his way towards Slade, the SCAR operative was shocked to see the commander in combat uniform.

"Commander? You're coming on mission?" Slade asked.

"Yep, I'll be your co-pilot. Don't worry, I've had my fair share of flight experience." Sebastian reassured.

The SCAR leader whistled loudly, and the other SCARs began to get in their Jackals. Slade crawled into the Jackal, and Sebastian managed to fit in the back. His clear glass helmet sealed itself as he prepared to enter space once more. The Jackal moved slowly onto the catapult tracks, before halting alongside the other jets.

"All Hummingbirds, this is the Nest. Prepare to fly."

The air traffic control had began to go through all the mandatory checks, going over everything twice to make sure no mistakes were made, especially with Slade and Sebastian. As soon as all the checks for the other jets were complete, each and every Jackal shot out of the hangar, flying lazily throughout the emptiness of space.

"All Hummingbirds, this is Hummingbird Actual. The Nest is moving into Venus' atmosphere. Fly clear." 

The Titan's massive size tore through the heavy winds and thunder strikes. The crew of the Titan and the Jackals were blinded by the massive overload of yellow. The turbulence was extremely strong, shaking the Jackals as if they were trying to intimidate the pilots from going near the destroyer that became larger and larger as they got closer.

"Hummingbird Actual, this is the Nest. SDF Hellas is undergoing repair, best chance of infiltrating is flying through the hull breach on the air bay on the starboard side of the ship." 

"Affirmative." Sebastian replied. "All Birds, attack the Starboard side and infiltrate there." 

The five Jackals flew to the starboard side of the Hellas. The turrets were disabled, and the Hellas seemed to go faster as the Jackals got closer and closer to the hull breach. Slade and Sebastian just managed to fly through the gap and crash land in the ruined bay. The SDF troops trying to repair everything were completely thrown off by the group of Jackals flying through the hull.

Sebastian pressed down hard on the triggers in the plane, and the planes gatling cannons fired waves and waves of bullets, ripping and tearing through flesh and steel throughout the hangar. The Jackals set down and the SCAR operatives prepared their weapons and made their way to the armoury. The soldiers were on a time limit, as in a few moments the entire crew would be diving on top of them as soon as they could get to the armoury. Sebastian fired the first shots, taking down an SDF trooper with his assault rifle before flipping another over and firing a bullet straight into his cranium. Slade gave a weird grin and continued moving, with Sebastian and the rest of the SCARs following their leader.

As soon as they entered the weapon preparation and armoury room, they were greeted by the crates and crates of missiles that were prepared with whatever payloads were inside them. The armoury was locked down for safety reasons, but it did not take long for Slade and Sebastian to break it down as the SCARs began to place explosive charges on as many high-explosive missiles as they could. Sebastian took a small turquoise cannister from a cryo-freezer and placed it on his belt as Slade began to download files on the chemical weapon to his touchpad on his wrist.

They weren't ready for the ambush from the rest of the SDF crew as they left the small armoury.

Bullets and energy blasts flew throughout the room, with two SCARs being hit and falling down to the floor. One was dead, and another was screaming as the energy blast began to let his leg to nothing but a bloody stump. Sebastian could just reach him if he ran out of cover, but he would be risking a lot if he did. He measured his chances, holstered his weapon and handed the cannister to Slade before he ran out of cover. He grabbed the wounded operative and began to drag him behind cover. The man was breathing heavily as the man continued to clutch his dissolved leg. The SCARs that remained continued to shoot back at the remaining SDF crew, yet it seemed like there was a never-ending amount of them trying to kill them. Sebastian turned to see the door behind them beginning to be forced open by the SDF forces on the other side.

"Slade! Cover fire and move!" Sebastian yelled as he began to pick up the wounded soldier and move as the SCARs laid suppressing fire on the SDF crew.

As the SCARs rushed through the halls of the SDF Hellas, they were occasionally ambushed by more soldiers but turned around to go another way to get to the air bay. As soon as they did, Slade climbed into his Jackal and Sebastian placed the wounded soldier in his seat.

"Commander, what are you doing?!" Slade essentially screamed.

"Give me your harpoon, Slade!"

Slade tore of the harpoon on his left wrist, and threw it to Sebastian. The commander attached the harpoon to his touchpad and began to adjust it as Slade began to prepare for launch again with the other SCARs. The engines began to scream as they turned on, and the SDF troops had began to fire, forcing Sebastian to hide behind cover away from the Jackals. He aimed the harpoon towards Slade's Jackal, and just as the Jackal was about to fly away, Sebastian screamed as he shot the harpoon and felt it land on the jet. Sebastian was dragged away screaming from his safe haven as the Jackal flew out of the air bay. As Sebastian was dangling helplessly from the Jackal, he could only hold on tight as the explosives that had been attached to the missiles went off, tearing the Hellas in two.

It would have been an understatement to say that Commander Sebastian Lyall was shaking and quaking in his boots as he marched into his office when he boarded the Titan once more.

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **Remember to follow, favourite and review!  
**_

 _ **~The Real Italian Stallion~**_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Icarius

As soon as Sebastian realised that the Jackal wasn't moving anymore, and he was lying on the floor of the air bay, he felt like his heart was about to burst out of his chest and throw itself into space. He had most of his engineering and his mechanical crew staring at him as if he had just gone and thrown himself into space, and that was to say that their eyes were wide and their mouths agape. The silence had taken hold of the bay, until Sebastian pressed the button on the back of his helmet and the glass that kept him safe from the cold hands of space retracted into his combat suit.

His harpoon was still impaled into the body of Slade's Jackal, keeping the captain of the Titan attached to the jet. He took his knife and sliced the rope off, freeing himself. The crew continued to stare blankly at the captain until he managed to stand himself up. Slade Jones made his way over to the commander and hauled him up to his feet. From what Slade could feel as he held the commander's forearm, he was shaking as if he had Parkinson's Disease.

"You alright, soldier?" Slade asked with a smirk as he took his harpoon back.

Sebastian continued to shake. "Yep, just fine mate. That… that was pretty awesome huh?"

Some of the SCARs and the engineers laughed. "Yeah." Slade replied. "Pretty awesome, commander."

Slade and Sebastian quickly made their way back to the cockpit and all the officers on the Titan had swarmed the rising tactical map that emerged from the floor. If the Retribution had one, then the Titan also probably did.

Sebastian, Elsa, Slade, Winters and Paul Flagg, head of the Dragoons, surrounded the table. Slade placed the chemical component on the tactical table, and Spyglass immediately began to holographically deconstruct the component and soon had a full analysis of the compound on the table in front of all the officers.

"The component in front of you is possibly the most dangerous weapon that we could have encountered. It goes by the tag EM-1986, and is even more dangerous than the atom or hydrogen bomb. When triggered, the compound lets out a massive emission of zeta and gamma rays within a specifically designated bubble that will target any area. The emission will kill off any human lifeforms, leaving it completely open for hostile take over. There is one flaw in this sample, although it is certifiably the best sample. The component is a touch too overdone, and if this was released the blast would be so powerful that it could cause an anomaly in the space-time continuum, and create a hole in the universe where my 9,543 platforms and GPUs wouldn't want to go."

The crew was silent, all staring at the table as well as the officers that manned it. Spyglass was completely emotionless as he had spoke, and it had some effect as he detailed that the small cannister in front of them could have tore apart the universe.

Elsa spoke first. "Spyglass, you're saying that the little cannister in the middle of the table could rip a hole in the fucking universe?"

"Affirmative." Spyglass replied.

"Well, the SDF have us fucked." Paul Flagg said, with a smirk.

"Not funny, Paul." Winters shot back. "Spyglass, what's the most ideal way to deal with it?" 

The computer was silent as it began to calculate equations and possibilities. The officers seemed to be shocked that the SDF had almost completed what could have been the perfect weapon. All of them were in full battle gear, including the commander, who was in full combat gear. The commander had been given some 'assets' as Raines had said and Commander Lyall had put the funds into creating some more updated weaponry from the past.

Apparently, Commander Lyall was fan of the classics.

The armour that Sebastian wore was an updated version of the gear that the Sentinel Task Force used to take down the despot, Jonathan Irons in 2054. Jet black gear that seemed much better fit to be used as reconnaissance gear, but as Sebastian had been given some 'assets' the armour had been updated for the current time of 2198. Nobody really complained, like his black admiral dress, it gave the commander a unique presence in the room that echoed a sense of discipline, and it made everyone in the room feel small, as if they were nothing in his presence.

"Extra-planetary expulsion, or we can submit it to R&D and improve it's design for maximum efficiency." The AI replied.

"Spyglass, drop the R&D plan. We aren't planning a genocide against Mars, we're not the fucking Nazis. Space it." Lyall commanded.

"Affirmative, Commander." 

The officers (and the crew) seemed to breathe easy. The genocide canister was thrown into an airlock, and spaced immediately afterwards. The only detractor of spacing the emission bomb was Major Paul Flagg.

Paul Flagg was one of the very few Winslow Accord Cyber Soldiers. After what had happened when the Coalescence Corporation had decided to make a program built from the brains of fifty-four Cyber Operatives, nobody knew. Paul Flagg had been purged of what he had called the Frozen Forest. As such, people understood why he was off a different mind on most matters, he had to fight against himself to keep his brain from melting. He had fought against his own brain and won, and Paul Flagg had considered it a curse and not a benefit of being a Cyber-Soldier.

Neither did the group of Dragoons. They no longer used the term cyber-soldiers even though it is the most basic term that was used. They preferred the term Dragoon and nobody was going to judge them for it.

The officers returned to the table, beginning to plan out the next strategic strike. The Hellas was out of commission, torn apart by Venus horrific storms and the sabotage done by the SCARs of the Titan.

"Commander Lyall, may I make a suggestion?" Spyglass asked.

"Go ahead, Spyglass." 

"I would highly recommend that you strike the SDF Icarius next. My 9,543 platforms predict that three important members of the SDF High Council will be meeting there to discuss tactics and my 9,543 platforms have estimated a ninety-seven point nine percent chance they will be talking about the disappearance of the SDF Hellas."

"Strategy, Spyglass?" Winters asked.

"I highly advise that you take a small team and infiltrate SDF Icarius. Although the Titan had more than enough weaponry to destroy the Icarius, I would advise to be completely certain that the three members of the council are eliminated to deal the SDF a significant loss."

"Thank you, bot." Slade said.

"I prefer the term Artificial Intelligence, Lieutenant Jones."

"Whatever, Skynet."

The tactical table was invaded by the holographic avatar of Spyglass. The red figure of what appeared to be a normal C6 Combat Robot marched over to Slade and began to berate him from the table. It was extremely hilarious for the crew until Slade Jones all glared at them, and his glare contained what appeared to be the ability to turn them into stone until they returned to their jobs. As soon as Spyglass disappeared from the table, Commander Lyall addressed all of them.

"Merrick, is our jamming equipment still working?" Lyall asked.

"At seventy-five percent capacity sir." Merrick responded, and Li began to activate the device. 

"Good. Jam the Icarius comms so it can't call for back up. Set a course for Pluto."

"Yessir." 

"Slade, get your Jackals ready for immediate first response. As soon as we have confirmed the objective, the Titan will immediately drop to the Icarius and destroy it. We'll need those Jackals to keep the Skelters at bay, and we'll need a Raven to pick us up. Winters, the Bullfrogs are out for this one, take some relaxation. Elsa, get two of your Marines and gear up, your with me. Flagg, I'll need five Dragoons with me for this one." 

Elsa was first to reply. "I'll get Cobb and Van Zant." She said, going off to get the other two marines.

"I'll organise Crimson Squad, Commander." Flagg stated, before walking off.

"Good. All dismissed."

The officers disembarked from the bridge, leaving Sebastian alone with the crew and Spyglass giving him constant updates as the Dragoons and the Marines organised up for an infiltration mission, and until the Titan's drop-engine sparked purple, he felt peace for the first time since Geneva.

That was until he heard the unmistakable sound of the Titan's thunderous engines, and he realised peace on the Titan was a very rare thing.

 _ **X-X-X**_

Elsa had always had a soft spot for the commander of the Titan. Other than the fact that he had saved her on Deimos, she felt like she owed her life to him. Although he had quickly dispelled the fact that she owed him nothing, she still felt like she did.

Elsa moved down to the crew quarters, and moved through the waves and waves of marines, NCOs, SCARs, Dragoons and Bullfrogs. Some of them were simply talking, some were chowing on some food that the mess sergeant had cooked up with whatever ingredients he had managed to find using the budget given to the Titan.

Flagg had some how appeared behind her silently, towering over her as if he were a human skyscraper. _He must be at least seven foot…_ Elsa thought as the man-machine hybrid gathered his squad of Dragoons. Sometimes she worried about them, and at times she was downright suspicious of them. From what she had read about Coalescence and the Corvus Disaster, the soldiers that had been upgraded with robotics had turned insane, gone rogue and had to be brought back for recalibration. She had no idea what recalibration was, but she had no doubt that it sounded horrifying, at least to a Cyber Soldier.

Elsa soon caught sight of Xavier Cobb and Logan Van Zant in the middle of the room, sitting at the table busy reading, the only remnant of calm in the storm that was the massive groups of soldiers and crew members on the deck. It seemed that Cobb was thoroughly invested in _The Lord of the Rings_ , but that was before Elsa had smacked the book down on the table, drawing both Marines' attention.

"Was that really necessary, ma'am?" Xavier asked. "I just lost my page."

"We've been called. You too Van Zant." Elsa replied.

"Gunny, you serious? Just take Cobb, god knows the SDF will die just looking at him..." 

"You want a boot up your ass, Van Zant?"

"No, Ma'am."

"Then get your ass up and get prepped and checked on the air deck in five." Elsa threatened, and the two marines were quick to start moving off to the armoury.

It didn't take long for the group to all meet in the armoury. Elsa had took her RPR and Kendall 44 with her for the mission, she didn't expect to use both of them, but the RPR with it's smg-to-rifle switch would become handy in the Icarius' structure. She soon caught sight of the Dragoons that had marched onto the ship, their own legs and arms clanging and smacking hard against the metal of the Raven that held them. Cobb and Van Zant had already taken their places and strapped themselves in for the ride.

Last but not least was Commander Lyall. In the jet black Sentinel CI armour, he marched through and was given salutes until he took the co-pilots chair alongside Pilot Moreau, who seemed happy to have a co-pilot again. Sebastian placed the heavy black helmet on, and the seals immediately attached the helmet to the rest of his gear, making it suitable for space combat. The helmet was like none she had ever seen before. It covered his entire face, covering it with a black canvas filled with eye lenses and goggles that were where his eyes were.

"Briefings on the HUDS, be briefed or be sorry."

"Commander!" The men yelled back. The mechanical and soothing voice of Spyglass took over the briefing.

"We have confirmed reports that three high admirals on the SDF High Council will be meeting on the SDF Destroyer Icarius to discuss possible strategy to deal with the remaining SATO forces and the Titan, Retribution and the Tigris. Soldiers Lyall, Cobb, Devereaux and Van Zant will infiltrate the Icarius alongside Crimson Squad and terminate the admirals. To assist, Crimson Squad will use their abilities to hide the fact that SATO forces have infiltrated the Icarius." 

_**X-X-X**_

It had been three hours since Lyall and his men had been dropped into Pluto's orbit, and there was no sign of the Icarius anywhere. The documents and manifests from the Ares Vales had been useful, detailing which admirals would be there and when the meeting would take place, but it seemed that the information was a little sketchy.

Mainly because the Icarius was three hours late.

The group had to put up with the incessant bickering between Cobb and Van Zant, the two British marines that had joined the UNSA at the same time. They were part of the Delta Squad, but Elsa had authorisation as leader of the marines to pull out whoever she wanted. Cobb and Van Zant were the best that she could find that were decent at infiltration. The SCARs would be busy dealing with threats when the Titan dropped in, and the Bullfrogs…

Well, they were the Bullfrogs.

"Oxygen is dipping to twenty percent, can't wait much longer, Commander." Elsa said.

"My DNIs got something, sir." One Dragoon spoke up. "It's coming fast, drop speed."

As soon as the Dragoon finished speaking, the massive destroyer shot above them, the roaring engines dying down as the ship floated effortlessly around Pluto. The group began to fly toward the bottom of the ship, and Elsa soon planted a small EMP on the cargo doors to allow them in.

"Hey, do you think Pluto is still a planet?" Van Zant asked.

"You're an idiot, Logan. Pluto's always been a planet." Cobb shot back.

"Not according to Spyglass."

"I couldn't care what Skynet..."

"Quiet." Sebastian ordered, silencing the two marines.

The group floated through the open doors, and simply waited until the doors closed them selves and the gravity returned. The nine soldiers soon hit the floor and climbed the ladder that led directly under the barracks of the Icarius. Sebastian was the first to climb the ladder, and soon spotted and SDF technician fixing some torn wiring. His hands gestured as if he were pushing something back, ordering them to stay down as he drew his knife and plunged into the back of the man's neck, severing his spinal cord before tearing the knife out and entrenching it into the man's heart.

"Tango down. Move up."

The team began to move up the ladder, and soon the Dragoons began to set up a mini-base underneath the barracks. The set out monitors and wires, and began to connect themselves to the inner workings of the Icarius. One of them, Hunt, gave them a quick nod and indicated that the Dragoons were connected to the ship.

Lyall, Elsa and Cobb climbed up to the barracks, catching sight of three more troopers who seemed to be coming off duty. Van Zant had already taken the uniform of the technician, and had disguised himself. The three other marines quickly eliminated the troopers and took there uniforms, although when Elsa had put her disguise it seemed to make her a little more bulky than she already was in the SATO armour she wore.

Sebastian quickly tuned the touchpad on his wrist to both SDF channels and the Titan channels. As soon as the four could hear the mechanical voice of Spyglass, they were certain they couldn't fail. With a team of cyber-soldiers and the AI, they would never be spotted and if they were, it would already be too late.

The three marines followed Sebastian, as he was dressed as the highest ranking officer. The way the destroyer ran was a lot different from how the UNSA ships were ran. SDF soldiers ran around to their stations, whilst some were busy observing or making repairs to either the ship or its robot contingent.

It wasn't long until they managed to get to the meeting room between the admirals. Some of the soldiers that were the guards were milling around the room, some were on guard duty and some were on what looked like a coffee break. They didn't pay any attention to the four undercover UNSA soldiers who walked right past them. Van Zant and Cobb immediately went into the life support section for the meeting room and began to record the meeting before setting up the ship-wide EMP.

"It's hard to try and not shoot them." Elsa mumbled.

"I know, but just keep your finger steady and we might just get out of here alive." Sebastian replied.

"Who are the admirals?" Van Zant asked over the radio.

"Admirals Oren Emin, Khosi Siyada and Omar Gatica. Admiral Siyada is the commander of the Icarius, well he is now. Before that, it was Caleb Thies." Cob whispered as he continued to fiddle with the recorder.

"Thies? The Butcher of Charon? I thought he was at Normungard?" Elsa almost screeched.

"Chill, Devereaux." Sebastian growled. "Nope, the damn jackboots that call themselves politicians broke down to the demands of the SDF and gave Thies back to them. From what I heard in private channels, Thies leads from the Mars Shipyard."

Sebastian could see Elsa shiver. Caleb Thies was a monster and one of the admirals that was responsible for the massacre on Deimos during Operation Hacksaw. He sent waves and waves of Martian soldiers into a killing zone, and killed anyone who dared give an opposing order or deserted. It was no wonder why Elsa shivered and despised the man known as the Butcher of Charon.

"Job done." Cobb said. "Life support sabotaged and meeting recorded." 

The two marines marched out of the life support section and nodded, informing the commander that the life support in the meeting room would be going off in three seconds. As soon as the four marines began to move, there was an audible thunk, and the gravity turned off. The men began to scratch and claw at their throats as they gasped for oxygen until they could not breathe any longer.

The SDF soldiers were running, some sprinting around the ship in order to try and bring some order to the chaos when they all realised that their superior was confirmed dead.

The four marines quickly made their way to the barracks, only to be met by the surprised faces of SDF troopers who had found the dead bodies of their comrades. Cobb was the first to fire on the SDF soldiers, mowing down the soldiers with his rifle, only to be taken by surprise and shot in the back by more SDF soldiers who had heard the gunfire. Van Zant was furious at seeing his friend injured, and began to provide covering fire as Elsa dragged Cobb down to where the Dragoons were situated, who had packed all their equipment up and began to see to the injured marine.

Van Zant and Lyall were busy fending off the SDF troops that threatened to break through the barracks. One soldier charged the two men, only to be smacked by the butt of a rifle and shot dead a second later. Van Zant began to gather the leftover equipment and taken it down to the others. Sebastian held off the soldiers for a few more minutes before beginning to retreat, and as he dropped to the cargo doors, he threw a grenade to the SDF forces who threatened to follow him, smirking as the explosion silenced the shouting and gunfire.

There was a massive crack that could be heard outside, and the massive guns of the Icarius began to fire. Sebastian quickly placed the SDF helmet on, and watched as the other soldiers did the same. The cargo doors opened the nine soldiers floated peacefully out of the destroyer, watching the massive battle between the destroyer Icarius and the super-carrier Titan.

A black Raven flew near them, the doors opened and waiting for the nine soldiers to enter. The Dragoons aided Cobb into the Raven as the marines flew inside just after them. The Raven pressurised itself and the soldiers removed their helmets. Sebastian watched with a smile as the Titan obliterated the Icarius, and it wasn't even using the MAC.

That was until the Raven left the immediate vicinity of the Icarius. There was massive booming, and the Icarius tore itself apart. Sebastian smirked and began to help the other soldiers in providing first aid to Cobb. Van Zant held his best friend's hand as the other soldiers began to keep pressure on the wound. The bullet had gone straight through the uniform and out the other side of Cobb's body.

"Cobb, the bullet isn't inside you. That's good, it means you won't need too much surgery." Elsa reassured the Brit.

"Damn, I thought the chicks dig the scars." Cobb laughed.

Van Zant chuckled as he held his friend's hand. Cobb continued to laugh as the Raven planted itself in the Titan's air bay. The medical officers took the injured marine, and Van Zant soon followed them to the medical bay. The Dragoons marched off back to the crew quarters as Sebastian and Elsa were busy speaking.

"What happens now?" Elsa asked.

"Not much. Retribution and Tigris are busy eliminating pockets of SDF task forces as they attack supply depots. When Top Cat gives us orders, we'll follow orders. Until then, we hunt down any lone destroyers wherever they are." 

Sebastian grabbed his Sentinel armour and began to take of the SDF armour that he wore. As he tore off the red and black armour, Elsa got a decent view of the leather black undersuit that he wore underneath the armour. He soon began to place the black Sentinel CI armour on, and soon the only skin that Elsa could see was Sebastian's face.

"Dismissed, Chief."

"Back to the bridge, Commander?"

"Free time, Elsa. I'll call when I need you." 

"Thank you, Commander."

The gunnery chief went on her tiptoes and planted a small kiss on the commander's cheek, before marching off to the social quarters. She left Sebastian Lyall blushing in the middle of the air bay, until he marched off to the bridge to sit in his seat, and deal with whatever he had to deal with until Admiral Raines contacted him.

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **Remember to favourite, follow and review!**_

 _ **~The Real Italian Stallion~**_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 9: Operation Burn Water

It had not taken long for the group to come back together on the bridge, led once more by Commander Lyall. They all had confidence in him, more renewed by his quick joining of the men and women that were usually doing the fighting for men and women who wore the admiral's dress and sat above the battlefield.

However, Sebastian was not that person.

Sebastian took his vintage armour and weapons, joined the men and women and fought right alongside them. He'd take the fight to the SDF personally if he had to, and even if he did not have to, he wanted to.

They killed his brother, that was reason enough for Sebastian to beat their asses into submission until they could not take any more.

He took his chair, and this time he no longer took off the Sentinel XI armour. He was ready for war, wherever it would take him and that meant luxury would not be available any time soon. Then again, Sebastian was never one for luxury.

"Merrick! Status!"

"Got a priority message from Top Cat, Commander!" Merrick replied from his seat. "Playing message now, Commander!"

Sebastian took his seat, and the members in the cockpit all went silent as the commanding voice of Admiral Raines echoed throughout the cockpit.

"Commander Lyall, congratulations on Luna, the Hellas and the Icarius. I wish I could be popping open the champagne but that'll happen when this war is over. So far, Captain Ferran and the Tigris has been taking down supply depots throughout the system, and keeping the SDF from moving out of the Solar System. Captain Reyes and the Ret have managed to stop the SDF Cerberus and their experimental Skelter squadrons as well as scuttle the SDF Leonis. All the SDF Capital Ships are down, except the Galaxius, but we haven't got a read on that one yet. We'll keep you posted."

"Aye-aye, Admiral." Sebastian replied, before Raines continued.

"We've been keeping the SDF on the defensive, and Admiral Kotch and the Olympus hasn't been seen for a while now. We need to keep them on the defensive, so I'm giving the Tigris, Ret and the Titan full authority to take down the refueling depot on Titan. If they don't have a refueling base in the system, they'll be relying on either the Galaxius or the Shipyard on Mars. Once the station is down, we can narrow down how many forces are at the Shipyard, and wherever the Galaxius is by following those retreating ships when we take Titan."

"Are we not going to use Titan for our own purposes, Admiral?" Asked Sebastian.

"We're going to use the planet as a forward operating base, Commander. Once the refueling station is destroyed, some of the remnant forces of will go from Earth and hold down the fort on Titan whilst you, Ferran and Reyes keep the SDF on the defensive."

"Affirmative, Admiral."

"I want you in on this, Commander." Raines announced. "Join Captain Reyes and his men on the Ret to get on the planet."

The message turned off and soon Sebastian got up from his seat and marched towards the tactical table. Flagg, Devereaux, Winters and Jones joined him and soon they began to discuss what they would do for the operation.

"It all sounds too easy to me." Flagg began. "We've kept them on the defence for too long now, how come they haven't retaliated? The Olympus Mons could have already eradicated Earth by now, why haven't they?"

Slade was next. "Probably because Kotch isn't stupid, clank. He knows we have control of the AATIS guns again, and no ships lasts long against the Iron Shield. Besides, Kotch and the SDF don't attack based on numbers and statistics, unlike you, clockwork dick." 

"You're gonna wanna keep your mouth shut, Jones." Flagg spat. "Other wise you're teeth will end up on the ground, with my hand wrapped around your throat."

"Has Kotch sent you fucking doo-lally, Flagg?" Sebastian asked, to see Flagg glare at him. "All those dinky little wires turning you up and down and inside out? You know what you'll do? You'll do fucking nothing on this ship, or I'll send you and your little metal mates into the trash compactor, yeah?"

Flagg pretty much stared daggers at the commander of the Titan, but he kept silent. He knew who was in charge and he had no place to argue. As much as Flagg liked to think he was the best, he was easily outclassed by Sebastian himself, the commander as well as Winters. In fact, Flagg could have been manhandled by anyone that was part of Winters' unit, due to them just being infinitely better than them.

"Affirmative, Commander."

With Flagg silent, it was up to Slade, Elsa and Alex as well as Sebastian to decide on what to do.

"Well, you heard Admiral Raines. You're wanted on the Ret." Slade said.

Sebastian nodded. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm leaving the Titan out of this. We've easily got the upper hand here, the SDF just don't know it yet."

What the SCAR Leader had said was true, the SDF were outclassed when it came to any battle with the Titan, unless they had the Olympus Mons. Since Olympus Mons had not been spotted anywhere recently, it could have been considered an immediate victory for the UNSA and SATO forces.

"Damn straight, _Capitaine."_ Elsa said. "I'll get the marines ready, and see what we can rustle up so you're not just down there with those SDF _Piqueres_ and the sailors on the Ret."

"Hey, Frenchie!" Li shouted from his seat. "We're sailors too, Missy!"

Elsa merely laughed, alongside some of the other men and women on the bridge that were working too. Slade began to ready the SCARS, Winters went to get the Bullfrogs ready, and soon Elsa had disappeared to get the Marines ready for deployment.

"Flagg." Sebastian said. "You ever threaten to beat another member of this crew..."

"I know, si-"

"No. Shut up and listen to me, you fucking dullard." Sebastian growled. "You haven't been right in the head since Earth, and I know that having two entire fleets devastated in an insanely small amount of time is fucking bad, but you have something wrong."

"Sir, I-" 

"What did I say? I said shut up and listen, so you'll follow your orders. Once this operation on the moon is done and dusted, you'll be leaving to go back to Earth. You're a health hazard, unlike the others on your little force. Hunt will take over for you, until you're good and fucking ready to come back, if you do come back. Am I clear, Flagg?"

"Sir, please. I can expl-"

"I don't want explanations, Flagg. Am I clear?"

There was an indomitable silence between the two soldiers as they stared deep into the other's eyes.

"Crystal clear, Captain." Flagg finally said. "I'll pack my bags."

 _ **X-X-X**_

It had not taken long for Sebastian to get a shuttle ride to the Retribution, courtesy of one of the pilots from the Retribution itself. His name was Boggs, and similar to the Flight Boss on the Ret, sounded like he was from the Deep South too.

Once they had parked into the Flight Bay of the Retribution, Sebastian had placed his NV4 in the rifle hold next to him and placed the helmet over his head, hearing the distinct hiss as the helmet sealed to the rest of the Sentinel armour. The Hailstorm was in the hip holster of Sebastian, as well as the EBR that was strapped to Sebastian's back.

"Commander Lyall, where's the rest of your lads and lasses?" Omar asked.

"They're coming, Staff Sergeant." Sebastian said. "Once we get to gates of the base, we'll meet them."

"So, we got some metal man and a commander dressed for show? I love our odds, Staffie." Kashima muttered.

"Lock it and stock it, Todd." Brooks said.

"Just an opinion, Sean!"

"You heard Brooks, Kash." Omar interrupted. "Lock it up." 

"Yes, Staff Sergeant!"

As soon as Omar, Brooks, Kashima, Reyes, E3N and Lyall were ready, the Raven which was piloted by Boggs dropped from the Retribution's Flight bay. The air was tight, and Lyall swore he could have heard the windows and steel creaking as they flew down to the moon of Titan.

As soon as the Raven had straightened out, the turbulence was nowhere near as bad. As the shaking had stopped, the squad readied themselves and soon the oxygen supplies were placed into the helmets of the squad as they opened the doors. Soon, the Raven had landed and the group dropped out and just after, Boggs flew off back to the Retribution.

The group made their way through the mountainous paths, jumping and jet-packing over large gaps as well as having to sometimes free-run with a mix of rope-less climbing in the mix so they could move faster. Soon, they had made their way through the mountains, where they could actually see the toxic gasses erupting from the chemical pits. Sebastian was thankful that the masks at least filtered the smells from the ammonia pits that would have been used as fuel for the SDF Fleets.

The same fuel that would be re-acquired for the UNSA when the SDF were booted off the moon.

"How long you been in the marines, Staffie?" Sebastian asked.

Reyes frowned slightly. "This really the time for campfire stories?"

"It's alright, Captain, I don't mind." Omar replied. "Been a good ten years, Commander. You?"

"Ten plus, Staffie."

"Same, hmm?" Omar smirked. "Perhaps I should join the Navy, perhaps after one year I'll have some stars."

The group laughed and soon it was E3N speaking. "You're family always been in the Marines?"

"Oh yeah, my father. He pulled some real triggers, he did. Shot down twice on the Battle of Deimos, he was 32nd Armoured."

"The 32nd?" Kashima asked, before going quiet and then speaking again. "Victory or death." The Canadian said, repeating the motto of the 32nd Armoured Division.

"Your dad was Army, Staff Sergeant?" Brooks asked.

"Yeah, I suppose I can forgive him for a few things."

The group began to move quicker, and soon they had stalked their way to the work camp, which looked some what abandoned. Kashima, Brooks and E3N had scaled the cliffs to go around the camp whilst Lyall, Reyes and Omar sneaked through the camp where they'd soon regroup. They managed to crouch and crawl throughout the camp, eliminating as many SDF soldiers as they could as they moved through the camp without drawing any attention from outnumbering SDF forces that were soon discovered to be moving to the main base of the moon.

"Brooks, Kashima, I want you to place charges on the cliffs here. Give these guys a landslide, so they won't flank us when we move up on the refueling station." Omar ordered.

"Affirmative."

The three soldiers placed the charges, and as soon as they had placed them they confirmed it to the commanding officers on the ground. It had not taken much longer for the group of six to regroup on the cliff that overlooked the work camp that they had just slithered through.

"Who wants to do the honours?" Brooks asked, holding out the detonator.

E3N placed his hand out, and taking one knee, Brooks gently placed the detonator in the robot's hand. The eye flaps raised and lowered surprisingly before he pushed the button, watching as the liquid mud began to smother the camp. The group moved out, not bothering to listen to the muffled screams of the SDF terrorists caught in the landslide.

 _ **X-X-X**_

"Hey, are we at the meet-up?" Kashima asked, lying on his back.

"You know, maybe if you looked you could see the problem why we can't meet up with Commander Lyall's forces." Omar replied, looking through the scope of his rifle.

"Outposts seemed to be scarce on Titan before, what changed?" Reyes asked, looking the scope of his own Longbow rifle.

"SDF. Take what they want and make it impossible to take back by almost everyone." Lyall replied.

Stowing his NV4, Lyall took the EBR soon so did Kashima, making it a team of six snipers hiding up on the cliffs above the final outpost that was guarding the refueling station.

"How many can we see down there?"

"Five… no… six…."

"Six, can you even count, Sean?"

"Shut up, Todd. Shit, seven..."

"Take aim, I'll take the extra." Lyall said.

Six shots fired out of the EBRs and the Longbow, killing six SDF soldiers before one more blast blew the final soldier through a doorway, leaving the outpost unmanned.

"Move up, time to meet up with Gridiron." 

As soon as they made their way down the cliffs and to the final outpost, they strolled out into the road, looking for the men and women where they'd attack the force holding the refueling station.

There was soon a loud rumbling sound, and a group of five Falcons flew from above the cliffs and landed on the roads. Men and women piled out, with three men staying in each ship, to remain on the cannons. The marines were all grouped up in squads of five, with the total amount of squads being ten.

The familiar blonde hair of Elsa Devereaux waltzed up to Commander Lyall, saluting before beginning. "Seems you got here late."

"Never been called an early riser, Dev." Lyall replied with a smirk, watching as a Raven landed.

The payload the Raven carried was magnanimous to definitely say the least.

One Grizzly Heavy Battle Tank rolled out, and the bloody thing looked almost twice as large as the Raven itself. After that marched a Mantis Heavy Weapon Platform, manned by another marine going by the name of Texeira. When Lyall looked inside to see if that was all, he was pleasantly surprised to see seven Goliath Exoskeletons ready to be entered.

"Staffie, Reyes, you four, in the Goliaths, were on point."

 _ **X-X-X**_

It had not taken long for the heavily armoured attack force to make their way through the caves, just overlooking the slide down to the refueling station. E3N had manage to worry Kashima about the Mantis, by saying in the prototype stages they'd fire indiscriminately at enemies and friendlies alike.

But that was quickly put down by Reyes.

The fifty marines, seven Goliaths, Mantis and Grizzly looked over the refueling station. All they had to do was slide down the cliff and make their way to the centre, and place some demo charges. Once that was done, it would be easy to push the SDF off the planet, they were barely holding onto Pluto and Jupiter, let alone the moons of Jupiter.

"All forces, check weapons." Lyall ordered. "Goliaths?"

"Seven check." Omar repeated, as the seven plus Lyall checked their cluster rockets on chaingun.

"Marines?"

"Triple check." Said Nunes.

Lyall then turned to the Grizzly tank and the Mantis platform. "You two?" 

"Check." Said the crew members inside the Grizzly.

"Check and check." Said Texeira from inside the Mantis.

Taking one last look at the main station, he pointed it out, the objective. It was the main tower, which held the most amount of fuel that would have been the most vulnerable point of the station. Other towers and stacks as well as many drums and tanks were scattered, filled with fuel that could have been ignited and blown up to either the SDF or the UNSA's advantage.

With one hand gesture, the Grizzly's double-barrel main gun fired two forty millimetre high explosive rounds. The building next to gates erupted and collapsed in on itself, as the HEAT rounds tore through the building. The alarms went off all over the refueling station, and soon the Third Battle of Titan had began.

The Marines, Goliaths, Grizzly and Mantis slid down the mountain, and soon Texeira had tore the gates open and began to fire millions upon millions of bullets as the SDF soldiers tried to swarm them at the entrance. Lyall and his fellow soldiers in the Goliaths were with the Grizzly, covering it with chaingun fire whilst the marines hid behind the Goliaths and Grizzly.

Although, Sebastian could have swore each time the Grizzly fired a round another earthquake could have been heard all the way from Pluto.

The SDF had been caught off guard, they were not expecting such a small but well-equipped attack force at such a time. The outposts had said nothing, although the SDF forces had deigned to think that the outposts and work camps could have been destroyed or completely eliminated. They were scattered, and they were failing to push back the attack force that was completely destroying them.

Kashima and Brooks had gone off and taken the left flank, making the most of the Acolyte Missiles that was blowing apart SDF soldiers as well as covering them in burning fuel that melted flesh right off the bone, melting right through the combat and breathing gear that kept them alive.

Reyes and Omar were working together quite well, despite them being from completely different arms of the military. Omar was the aggressive one, using the full might of the Goblin chaingun as well as his missiles whilst Nick Reyes kept himself on the rear of Omar, making sure their flank was not ambushed by any SDF forces that thought they could take on the two highly experienced and very much deadly soldiers.

Then, there was Elsa and Sebastian. They were perfectly in synchronisation with the other, covering each other with perfect accuracy, keeping the marines safe as they all pushed forward.

"All forces converge on the gate to the pipeline directory!"

It had not taken much longer for the SDF to feel through the directory, and soon the UNSA forces were giving pursuit. Gates were smashed, bullets and missiles flew through the air and the UNSA marines were in some kind of euphoric bliss as the SDF began to flee and Texeira tore apart a C12 Combat Mech, bisecting it from the waist.

As they moved on to the next part of the station, they heard a loud rumbling from the sky. It was the familiar sound of the drop-engines working in atmosphere. The blue glow began to show and soon the clouds began to hide what had appeared through the drophole.

"That one of ours?" Texeira added.

"Can't be, we didn't call anything in." Nunes said.

The clouds soon parted, and what could be seen was not what any UNSA ground forces wanted to see.

The Olympus Mons.

The familiar scrambling of screens appeared on the Heads-Up Display of every UNSA soldier, eventually showcasing the young and scarred face of the formidable SDF Admiral.

Salen Kotch.

"This is Admiral Salen Kotch of the Olympus Mons. To all SATO and UNSA forces on Titan, surrender your weapons and armour and approach your nearest SDF officer for immediate… Execution."

"Fuck no!" Reyes yelled. "Tigris, we need close air-support, drop to these co-ordinates!"

"Nick, wait god damnit!" Sebastian yelled, as the many UNSA forces proceeded to take shelter in an old shelter that managed to fit the Grizzly and Mantis inside before another aerial bombardment from the Olympus took place.

The familiar sound of a drop engine could be heard, smaller than the drop engine of the Mons. Leaving his Goliath Exoskeleton, Sebastian quickly ran to the roof of the shelter, untouched by the bombs that were being dropped all around him.

The UNSA Tigris had appeared, with no other support or back up in sight. The SCAR Teams had been deployed, and the UNSA Jackals were taking the fight to SDF Skelters in the battle for air superiority.

That was until the unique whining of the Mons' Tesla Cannon could be heard, and soon the massive laser weapon had shredded it's way through the almost mediocre shields and hull of the UNSA Tigris. Not a single SOS or distress signal could have been heard, which only meant one thing.

Everyone on the UNSA Tigris, was dead.

The destroyer-class vessel was almost on a collision course before it ducked under the Mons' massive frame, crashing through a rock arch and into a nearby fuel regulation and control facility just nearby, leaving the UNSA forces stranded without any main air support bar the Jackals that were somehow managing to fight both the chasing of the SDF Skelters as well as the flak and AA fire of the Olympus Mons.

"This is Admiral Salen Kotch of the Olympus Mons to any and all SATO/UNSA forces on Titan. The Tigris lies in ruin, with all hands dead for their ineptitude. I shall repeat myself only once, surrender your weapons and arms and give yourself to the closest SDF soldier for immediate execution…

"Death is no disgrace!"

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **Remember to follow, favourite and review!**_

 _ **-The One Italian Stallion-**_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 10: Titan and Olympus

"Dude, how the fuck has this happened?"

"What do you mean how the fuck did this happen? It's the SDF, they're probably five steps ahead of us all the time!"

"Shut up! Keep your heads screwed and stop losing your nerve!"

"You heard the Staffie! Keep ya traps shut and stop acting like prats, will ya?"

It was relatively obvious that what the soldiers on the ground had just seen was more than intimidating. The Olympus Mons was the greatest ship ever known, only antagonised by their very own supercarrier, the Titan. In his crazed rush for help, Nick had called out for the help of the Tigris, and this rushed plan had just gotten one of the three ships left for UNSA in the Solar System destroyed.

Lyall was quiet in all of the chaos, trying to help the marines that had been injured or wounded in the chase to get to shelter or on the way through the refinery. Kashima was just across from him, and the pair of them were helping the same marine, the corporal known as Nunes.

"Nunes, c'mon stay with us…." Kashima ordered. "Listen up, you hardass, you're gonna make it through this!"

Lyall could barely hear the laughing cough from Nunes as she lay bleeding on the floor. The pair tried to stem the bleeding, but the medical officer with the attack force had already been blown to pieces when the Olympus Mons had made it's entrance.

The roaring of the engines could still be heard from the Olympus Mons that was right above them. The whining of dying engines could be heard from miles away as the corpse of the UNSA Tigris hung above them, a new addition to the battlefield they would be soon fighting on. Texeira had closed the door from inside the Cyclops combat robot he was in, making sure any SDF troops could not come around and kill them all.

Lyall could feel the grip that Nunes had on his arm slack a little, before falling to the floor. Of course, Kashima kept speaking to her, telling her to keep breathing. Yet, his words fell on wasted breathe. Nunes was already dead and she wasn't coming back any time soon. Omar and Brooks were trying to regather the marines and to keep them in the game. Texeira was stomping around, next to Devereaux.

Reyes was absolutely devastated. His hand was stuck across his glass faceplate, his rifle bouncing across his chest. In his fearful ordering, he had gone and killed at least two thousand people because of his foolishness. He was trying to speak, but all that was happening was the miming of the words. He was just mouthing them, not a single syllable could be heard of the words he was speaking.

"Nunes..." Kashima said. "Nunes is gone, Staff Sergeant."

Brooks shouted. "Fuck! Fucking shit! What's the plan, Staff Sergeant?"

"We don't die on our fuckin' knees! Not now, not any day!" Reyes finally said, gaining some kind of confidence.

"What about us, Captain?" Omar asked. "How is this gonna work?"

Taking to his feet, Sebastian began to speak once again. "Captain Reyes, call in your Retribution. I'll call in my Titan. Have the Ret bringing ground and air support, and I'll have the Titan keep the Olympus Mons distracted."

Lyall then turned to the crew members inside the Grizzly battle tank, all sitting on the tank itself as well as Texeira. "You guys, I want you to listen to Staff Sergeant Omar, he's giving orders until I'm back."

"Yessir!" The tank drivers and Texeira replied, getting to their stations and going to Omar for their new orders.

"Nora, Gator, bring in the Ret and get the marines and the SCAR teams ready!"

"Merrick, Li, get me one Vulture, and make it staffed bar the pilot. I'll fly it." Lyall ordered.

The men and women aboard the Retribution and the Titan all echoed their orders. It wasn't long until Reyes, Lyall and E3N had entered the nearby cargo elevator to the roof where they'd be able to reach their Vulture and the Jackal jets. On the ride, it was occupied by the silence more than any actual talking. That was until Admiral Kotch had decided to make another grand and glorious speech to the UNSA forces on Titan.

"Commander Lyall, Captain Reyes. There is no hope for you here on Titan, I have buried your brothers and I have hunted your sons. You cannot win, you have no hope of winning. Give up now, surrender and order your men to drop their weapons. Death is no disgrace!"

"That bastard..."

"You know him?" Reyes asked.

"Admiral Salen Kotch, youngest Admiral in the SDF Fleet. Commander of the Olympus Mons and overall general Martian piece of shit. We… we knew each other on Deimos. I was under orders from Admiral Raines, and he was under orders from Admiral Thies. It was weird, really really weird."

"How so?" E3N asked, his eye-flaps raising in curiosity.

"I was in SCAR at the time, Petty Officer. That was how me and Chief Devereaux met, on Deimos. Kotch was one of the best Skelter pilots in the SDF at the time, he'd shot down ships of all types. He was part of the force that shot down the UNSA Everest, and I was part of the force on the UNSA Minotaur. Both ships went up going down, but I had managed to survive." Lyall said.

He then began to continue to tell his tale as the elevator continued to move up the elevator shaft.

"Me and Kotch were the only people left, of both forces. We had a nice little chat, and after that it was quite amicable. It was a friendly rivalry at best, even despite the war crimes. That was until Europa."

"Europa? Where the SCAR Team went down?" E3N asked.

"Yeah, did you guys know about that?"

Before E3N and Reyes could reply, the elevator had hit the top floor and the trio marched out to the roof where they could see the magnificently scary titanium chassis of the Olympus Mons. The turrets and missile silos were bombing most of the refinery, destroying any area that was occupied by anyone, no matter if they were SDF or UNSA forces.

The trio stowed their weapons as Salter flew down, and Reyes and E3N leapt into the other Jackal, before flying off with Salter and to the control and regulation centre. Soon after, the Vulture Heavy Gunship had hovered down and Lyall soon jumped in, taking the pilot seat.

"All UNSA forces, this Vulture Actual." Lyall began. "Pile into the Vulture, were going for a gunrun!"

Lyall quickly got used to the joystick that was used as a rudder, quickly adjusting to the lack of twin joysticks unlike a Jackal or a Raven. Lyall quickly checked the loadout, and noticed the Vulture was packed to the brim with all types of weaponry, like the ARGENT V Missile systems and GAU-23 Gauss system that Lyall could see peering leering over the glass like some kind of ever-present threat.

Yet it was not a threat to Lyall, it was a threat to the SDF bastards that were trying to kill them.

"Fair winds, Vulture Actual!" Texeira roared over the radio.

As the Cyclops pilot spoke, there was a heavy thudding over the roof of the Vulture, before Lyall could see the Cyclops leap off the roof and into a SDF Hyena Troop Carrier. Texeira released the Cyclops' entire payload into the carrier, and soon the carrier dropped from the sky with Texeira still clinging onto the frame, killing all aboard. It soon occurred to Lyall why Texeira had done what he did.

If he had not, the Vulture would never have had enough time to take off with the Grizzly tank still attached.

The Vulture quickly began to rise through the air, and the first thing that Lyall noticed was that he was definitely outnumbered by the amount of Skelters in the air. However, it was not air-superiority that the Vulture excelled at.

It was ground attack, and there was plenty of ground to be attacked.

"Gunners, focus fire on all SDF forces on the ground. Fire everything at them!" Lyall yelled over the radio.

The rumbling of the 40mm cannons was heard throughout the ship, and soon a series of explosions could be seen all over the battlefield. Men and machine flew through the air, wires and body parts flying apart as the explosions tore them apart. It was then when Lyall let loose on the ARGENT V missiles, watching as the four missile pods released their payloads, and as four missiles from each pod flew through air into the SDF soldiers on the ground.

"Confirmed hit, Commander." Usef said. "Never seen one of these beasts before, it new?"

"You'd be surprise what the jar-heads can cook up on the Titan, Staff Sergeant!"

Kashima laughed. "Gotta get the Retribution some of these, holy shit look!"

Just above the Olympus Mons, there was a small feint little glow. It looked like a mix of blue and purple, and that was a very distinct mix of colours, at least from what the soldiers on the battlefield could see. The glow began to grow further, and soon it was large enough to resemble a small slipspace drop-hole.

Which meant ships were coming in.

There was a thunderous roar from further in the sky, and from the purple drop-hole emerged the great UNSA supercarrier.

The Titan.

"Christ almighty!" Brooks exclaimed. "That's yours, Commander? That's bigger than the Independence!"

"That there, Corporal, is the UNSA Titan. The only super-carrier class ship for the UNSA. It's something to keep the SDF on their toes."

Next to the Titan soon erupted the small carrier that was the UNSA Retribution. It moved a lot faster than the Titan, soon making a nose dive to get in firing range of the Olympus Mons and the refinery.

"Commander, it's Merrick!" Lyall heard from his radio. "We have our firing solutions, so does the Ret. Permission to fire on the Mons and the refinery?"

"Permission granted, Flight Lieutenant." 

"Copy, Commander! Ready for danger close!"

There was a loud rumbling once more, although it was quieter than the rumbling of cannons inside the Vulture. Shells and missiles were flung from both the Titan and the Retribution, flying down and hitting the refinery just below the Vulture as well as hitting the massive chassis of the Olympus Mons that was lingering above them.

"Commander Lyall, this Ret. Command. SCAR Teams one through three are joining the fight! Can you read SCAR One-One?" The man known as Gator said.

"Solid copy, Ret. Gimme a minute." Lyall replied. "Captain Reyes, the Titan and the Retribution are here, Ret. Command cannot get a solid radio connection with you, can you confirm?"

"I can confirm, Vulture Actual!" Reyes said over the radio. "The refinery control is down, destroyed by the Tigris wreck. We're running search and rescue right now!"

"S&R? Are there survivors from the Tigris?" Lyall asked.

"Affirmative, Commander Lyall."

Lyall could not reply to the familiar voice of Captain Maureen Ferran as he felt the Grizzly below the Vulture fire it's gun. The power of the Grizzly's gun was too much for the Vulture even, and the gunship flew backwards as the gun fired, causing Lyall to press the joystick forward. He almost felt the joystick break off as he forced the Vulture forward as he released more missiles.

 _ **X-X-X**_

Nick ran faster than he had before. The Tigris was falling apart, and since the refinery control centre had been completely destroyed, he had knew what to do with the Tigris. He wasn't just going to leave the still-living men and women aboard the Tigris to die just because of his stupid mistake.

No, the Tigris went down because of him.

And it was up to Nick Reyes to fix the mistake that he had made.

Well, he did fix it as much as he could. The lifeboats had failed to launch but they were built to withstand a massive crash like the one the Tigris had went through. Scrambling from the Jackal, Nick took his RPR and ran along the body of the Tigris until he could get inside. Jumping down a service tunnel, he had began to open the life pods until he found the boiling liquid that was beginning to envelop the Tigris' metal carcass.

He thought he was going to die.

The Tigris had shifted whilst he was inside, whilst E3N and Salter were outside of the ship still inside the comfort of the Jackals.

"Ferran, I'm so sorry!" Nick said as he broke open her lifeboat, pulling her out.

"Apologies can happen out of the battle, not now." Ferran said, drawing her Kendall 44.

Nick was quite surprised by the adamant nature of Captain Ferran. She was so much older than Nick, and she fought like she was made to be a SCAR fighter. She joined the remainders of her crew on the chassis of the ship, and soon Nick and Ferran were fighting off the SDF on the body of the sinking UNSA Tigris.

"Commander Lyall, fancy trying to help us get off the Tigris? It's sinking!"

"I'm almost there, Reyes, just wait!"

"The Tigris is fucking sinking, Lyall!" Nick replied over the radio, a bullet whizzing right past his head.

There was a loud thundering sound, the sound of the Vulture flying right above them. Nick swore he could have seen tank gunners, climbing out of what appeared to be a Grizzly tank. As soon as the last one crawled in, the Vulture ended up dropping the Grizzly like some kind of make shift battering ram, running down the SDF soldiers firing on them before the tank itself flew off the body of the Tigris.

As Nick poked his head up, he noticed his Jackal was gone and soon E3N was running towards them, gesturing to Nick to move backwards. The surviving Tigris crew as well as Nick, Ferran and E3N ran towards the stern, as the Vulture hovered just over the edge. The crew members leapt from the body of the Tigris, before E3N grabbed Ferran by the hips and with one horrified shriek from Ferran leapt through the air and into the open cabin of the Vulture.

Soon, Nick followed, and with one quick leap into the Vulture he pushed past and into the cockpit of the Vulture, taking the co-pilot seat next to Commander Lyall.

"Captain Reyes."

"Commander Lyall." 

The two soldiers went through the regular pre-flight checks as Lyall began to send some responsibilities of the Vulture to the SCAR Leader and the Captain of the Retribution. As they flew back to the main refinery, the main storage tower was now exposed. Turning the key in place to activate the Gauss cannons, he looked at Nick.

"Wanna do the honours?" Lyall asked?

"Thank you very much, Commander." 

Pressing the metaphorical big red button, the twin gauss cannons shot through the main storage and the tower blew up in a plume of white smoke. He could hear a loud amount of cheers over the radio until the small screen on the Vulture opened up, and the screen was making itself out of gold flashes of light and static.

Like before, it was Salen Kotch.

"Commander Lyall, it seems like I have neglected to speak to my intelligence operatives a little longer than I should have."

"Or your intelligence operatives is just really shit."

"Ah, Sebastien. Ever the bluntest UNSA soldier I ever had the displeasure of meeting."

"Ah, Kotch. Always the arrogant, self-serving shitpile of an Admiral I ever knew. Who's cock did you have to nibble on to get the promotion?"

"Petty insults will get you nowhere, Commander. You have lost this war, Sebastian. You may have beaten Thies on Deimos and we may have gone down on Phobos together, but that is all in the past. They are merely pages of your history, a history that will soon be lost to the ages in favour of a better civilisation. A Martian civilisation." 

"This is coming from someone who has lost two capital ships, five members of the council and just lost a crucial fuel station, Kotch. Rethink your words, you idiot."

"You may have beaten us back for now, Sebastian, but we still have the Mons, I still have the F-SpAr plans. You will lose, don't fight this."

"Yeah, yeah, go fuck yourself."

"Mars Aeturnum."

It was not long before the screen cut off and Lyall, Reyes and everyone was sitting in silence until the Vulture docked with the Retribution. Lyall was silent as he took a Raven back to the Titan with the crew members of the Tigris and the Titan with him.

The mission was accomplished, at the loss of his marines and some valuable machinery.

 **X-X-X**

 _ **Remember to follow, favourite and review!**_

 _ **-The One Italian Stallion-**_


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: After Action

It had not taken long for the Commander of the UNSA Titan to return to his ship. The soldiers had returned, or at least as many that has survived the Olympus Mons' onslaught back on the moon of Titan. It had killed Nunes and Texeira, and many other marines that had joined the attack force on the moon. It could have been a lot worse, Captain Reyes could have died, the Vulture could have gone down. It was already bad, considering that the UNSA Tigris had been shot down by the massive cannon that had been attached to the Olympus Mons.

It was bad.

It never exactly made sense to Sebastian, why the SDF had been created and why they fought against Earth. They could have just talked it out, discussed it diplomatically and managed to come to some sort of understanding. Yet, both the leaders of Earth and the leaders of Mars had been greedy. One did not want to give away and another wanted too much, and by too much the SDF wanted the entire system. It could have worked, if they had not gone and destroyed Hong Kong, destroyed Malmo and occupied Buenos Aires for two years. If they had not done that, perhaps the situation could have been a lot better, perhaps it could have resulted in something that wasn't a war that was going to consume the Solar System.

Perhaps tens of thousands of men and women would still be alive, on Earth and on Mars.

The more that Sebastian thought of it, the more that he began to think what about what they were fighting for. Control? Resources? The SDF wanted independence, but they resorted to terrorism to try and gain it. It was a foolish endeavour, but the SDF had the numbers to try it. They bred like rabbits, when one fell down another ten took their place. They used them like cannon-fodder.

He finally made it to the bridge, and there was no information from either Admiral Raines or Captain Reyes. It meant there was no mission yet, or at least nothing coming at the moment. It had always rubbed Sebastian up the wrong way, if after one mission he had nothing to return to and focus on. It just didn't sit right, there was always a chance that something could happen outside of the mission, or if something terrible happened in the mission. What would happen if he lost someone he cared about on the mission? What would he do if he lost Elsa? What would he do if the odds soon flipped and it was all on him to deliver what used to be called a pyrrhic victory.

What would happen if he fell on the battlefield and could not get back up? Who had the Titan? Devereaux? Ferran? Raines?

"Merrick, status report?" Sebastian asked, looking at the tactical table.

Merrick sent the list of repairs made in the meantime. Then, there was a list of names next to the list of repairs, the names all had big red letters next to them. All of which read something like this:

Corporal Amanda Nunes: KIA

Lieutenant Glover Texeira: KIA

Private Dan Rivas: KIA

Private Jack King: KIA

The list itself was long, and after counting or at least getting Spyglass to count for him. The casualties were totalled. After Operation Burn Water, twenty two soldiers, plus the five hundred men and women on the UNSA Tigris. Five hundred and twenty two soldiers dead in a single attack, as well as the loss of millions of dollars worth of military equipment.

If Sebastian was still a Petty Officer, he would have been more concerned with the amount of money lost in an endless sea of death and destruction. Then again, he was no longer a Petty Officer, he was a Commander, the leader of the UNSA Titan and the Titan's Shield. Yet, he was alone. His fleet was gone, every fleet had been sent out to secure the outer colonies away from the Solar System. They did not want to risk the outer colonies being taken too, and that would never happen.

They had managed to contain the battle to within the Solar System.

That would have been considered a victory, that the SDF could not escape either. It was win or die, there could be no other option. Either the SDF won and the Solar System was theirs, or the UNSA won and the red planet would most likely be annexed and turned into some kind of prison planet.

The idea wasn't exactly special, it had been done out of the Solar System.

"Commander, are you feeling alright?" Spyglass asked.

"I'm fine, Spyglass." Lyall said before marching to his office. "Merrick, you have the conn." 

"Aye aye sir."

The commander took to his office, sighing loudly as he finally reached his office. He opened the door and as soon as he closed he fell to the floor. He didn't know what was wrong with him, he just fell to the floor and stayed quiet.

It was the war.

He had not had a second to think about his brother. The fact that he had lost Dan so quickly and barely had time to mourn had been bad, he didn't even know if his mum and dad knew. Were they even alive? Sebastian didn't even know if his parents were in Geneva, they always had been one for never missing a Fleet Week parade. Sebastian could remember the Fleet Week parade in Melbourne, when Sebastian had set off on the Minotaur before the Battle for Deimos. When Dan had 'gone on retreat' whilst he was on the UNSA Traverse, they looked even prouder. Although, Sebastian only wished he could have told his brother and his parents of his promotion to a Commander.

 _I wish, I wish, I wish…_ Sebastian thought to himself. _Me, myself, and I. It's always about me isn't it? Nobody else but you._

He wanted and he got, he wanted and he took, he wanted but he never gave away.

There was a certain amount of harshness and selfishness in the Commander. He wanted them to be the best, he knew they were the best and he wanted to see that every day. There was nothing wrong with wanting to be the best of the best, was there? There could never be anything better than the best, and the crew of the The Titan were the best.

"Sir!" Li shouted. "We have the confirmation on the capital ship!"

"Which one?" Sebastian asked, rushing to the intercom and speaking to the pilot.

"The SDF Galaxius." Merrick replied, his accent echoing through the speakers.

It wasn't long before Sebastian made his appearance back on to the bridge. He walked right over to the two pilots, and right through the thick, sealed glass was the imposing chassis of the second greatest ship ever built by the Settlement Defence Force.

The SDF Galaxius, commanded by the Butcher of Deimos himself, Admiral Caleb Thies.

"It's inactive, hasn't moved at all." Merrick began.

"Stealth systems are engaged, Commander." Li stated. "They don't know we're here."

"Get me the Retribution, we'll need two teams on this." Lyall said, pressing a mic on his chair and ordering the leaders on the Titan to the bridge.

"Affirmative, Commander Lyall." Spyglass said. "Coordinates sent to Captain Reyes and Admiral Reyes."

There was a firm silence as Winters, Devereaux, Slade made their way to the bridge. Their faces then dropped in shock and horror as they laid eyes upon the SDF Galaxius. Yet there was one person that had no shock or horror on her face, no fear or sadness was visible on her face.

Elsa Devereaux was angry. She was going to kill Caleb Thies.

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **Remember to follow, favourite and review!**_

 _ **-The One Italian Stallion-**_


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Galaxius (Part One)

It had not taken long to come up with a plan to take down the Galaxius. With some intel from Raines, they knew that Admiral Thies and Admiral Barkov would both have been on the ship, and they had hostages and the experimental weapon on the ship, the same weapon that had been recovered from the facility on Europa.

The Galaxius was almost the same size as the Olympus Mons, so it almost dwarfed the Titan too. The Titan would be distraction, firing on the Galaxius as Sword Team and Hammer Team entered the Galaxius discretely.

Objective One: Recover the hostages.

Objective Two: Assassinate Admiral Caleb Thies and Admiral Vadim Barkov.

Objective Three: Recover the experimental weapon taken from the test facility on Europa.

The mission was a personal one, most of all for Sebastian. He had no doubt that Admiral Thies would have given Admiral Kotch permission from the SDF High Council to kill any and all UNSA presence on Europa. If anything, the hostages were just another pressure point. Thies or Barkov could have ordered their executions days or weeks ago, but they didn't.

They wanted the UNSA to bow. To kneel and proclaim how amazing the SDF were at everything.

That was not going to happen any time soon, not if Lyall, Reyes and the forces of the Ret and the Titan had anything to say about it.

The guns of the Titan were thundering and thumping at a quick pace. Shell after shell was impacting the chassis of the Galaxius, blowing holes in the ship before they were quickly sealed off by the life support systems. Of course, Thies and Barkov had an upgraded security system, they were two of the most infamous Admirals in the SDF

Seconded only by the pompous asshole that was Admiral Salen Kotch.

A fleet of Ravens flew from the bays of the Retribution and the Titan. A squadron of Vultures had been deployed for heavy fire support despite the fact that they weren't meant for orbital combat. All SCAR Teams, at least what was left had been deployed. While SCAR Team One was with Lyall and his team, SCAR Teams Two and Three were on fly-by duty.

Then there were the Dragoons.

In the lone Condor on the battlefield, there were fifty Dragoons inside the long-range and heavy-transport ship. Fifty Dragoons, ten of which were seated in the new and improved Mantis defence system.

Also known as a massive ass robot suit with gatling guns and missiles.

"Hey." E3N Began. "Why is the Galaxius so much bigger than the other SDF ships?"

"You got a lot to learn about the human anatomy, trooper?" Elsa asked.

"I take it that Admiral Thies is overcompensating, ma'am?" E3N asked. "Like Admiral Kotch?"

"Admiral Piece of Shit more like." Sebastian began. "Don't swear Ethan, it doesn't look good."

"Fuckin' A, sir." E3N said, creating a good few laughs over the comm on the other Ravens.

Even Sebastian had to admit, the robot was a lot funnier than everyone thought. He acted like he did indeed have his own conscience. He'd even become a comedian too, it seemed. The robot was a favourite, some people on both the Ret and the Titan were even predicting he could become an actual Captain of his own ship one day.

It seemed and sounded mad, but it definitely seemed like it might come to fruition. E3N was aiming for some good promotions, and he was most likely going to be getting a metric shit-ton of medals when the war was won.

"Seems like the bot is getting a bit mouthy, sir!" Kashima said over the radio. "You gonna spank him, Commander?"

"Kash, if you don't shut up, I'll spank you instead." Elsa spat over the radio with a smirk.

"Ooh-la-la, Staff Sergeant." Kashima replied. "I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff."

"What kind of stuff am I into, Private!"

"Nothing, Staff Sergeant Omar!"

The banter between the Titan crew and the Retribution crew was somewhat amazing. It was very rare that the two crews got along that well, but desperate times called for desperate measures and some edgy banter was always good for morale. The ships were rumbling as they flew through space, and soon the emptiness of space had invaded the Ravens, as the soldiers inside each one leapt out onto the body of the Galaxius.

"Ravens One to Five, you're Sword Team and you're with me!" Lyall shouted, with the appropriate Marines, SCARS and Dragoons following him.

"Ravens Six to Ten, you're Hammer Team, let's go get 'em!" Reyes shouted.

The plan was a rather simple one, foolproof. Sword Team would be breaking through into the engine decks, and then they'd secure the cargo bay. Hammer Team would be entering through the starboard gun bays and then would regroup with the Sword Team.

"Devereaux, take point!"

 _ **-X-**_

"Kashima, Brooks, take point with the Mantis Group!"

"Yessir!" The two marines replied.

The Taskmaster Cannons on the Galaxius were rumbling loudly, firing back at the Titan with all the firepower it had. Five Mantises were firing their GARDIAN Missiles at the cannons, destroying them as they took their zero-gravity walk over the Galaxius. There was a loud clap, heard even in space. The familiar blue hue was noticeable, and the Mantises froze suddenly.

It had been a large shock when the Galaxius tilted to the starboard side.

"Shit!" Omar yelled. "Everyone, Mag Grips, now!"

The soldiers activated their grips, but many were either smacked and killed by wreckage floating through space, taking them into the cold grasp of space. The Mantises thrust their feet into the chassis of the Galaxius, bending the steel and lodging themselves hard into their place. Two Mantises were unlucky enough to be too late in doing so, and they were thrown into the pathways of Havoc cannons, to be blown apart.

"Hammer Team, keep fuckin' moving! I said keep fucking moving!" Omar yelled, before using his mag grips to get on the starboard side.

The team followed him quickly, before the Mantis took to covering the six. They soon reached the gun batteries, and Mantises did their jobs amazingly. They tore one of the Havoc guns out of it's place, before piling out from space as the unsuited SDF fighters were sucked out into the cold black reaches of space.

Kashima and Brooks took point, leading the marines and SCARS into the starboard gun bay.

"Sword Team, this is Reyes! We are inside the Galaxius, status report!"

 _ **-X-**_

"Destroy the drop-engine, make sure the Galaxius doesn't try and escape."

"Affirmative, Commander Lyall."

As Hammer Team had managed to break in through the starboard gun bay and wreck havoc there, Lyall and Sword Team had managed to break any chance of the Galaxius dropping out of the combat zone. Obviously, the ship would still try and escape by just flying away. Yet, that was why they had the Retribution on stand by just in case.

The Mantis pilot that had spoke turned around, unleashing a hail of missiles and bullets into the drop-engine. The ship itself seemed to slow down, and soon the Sword Team had began to move out.

It was pure chaos.

SDF troopers had gathered outside, littering the battlefield with their own bullets, obliterating two SCARS and an entire squad of Marines. Lyall could see Devereaux dragging Cobb from out of the open and behind a heavy storage crate. The man was still madly firing his rifle at whoever looked at him the wrong way and was wearing SDF colours.

 _Defiant to the end…_

Lyall peaked his head out cover, aiming at two soldiers who had just fired a missile, destroying one of the Mantises. There were four of his Mantis platforms left, and soon one had charged ahead, breaking through the defences so Sword Team could move up. As they pushed forward, they could see a group of SDF soldiers firing at something, and soon Lyall realised that they were on looking directly at the starboard side of the ship.

"Mantis Two, Mantis Three, go and assist Hammer Team!" 

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Two Mantises broke off and plunged into the starboard gun bay, kicking over barrels and crates used as cover. The SDF tried to destroy them, but it didn't take long for the SDF to be put into retreat. Hammer Team gave a small thanks over the radio, with Reyes ordering the Mantises to take point. The marines over the radio could be heard cheering as the Mantises continued to ravage and destroy what used to be the SDF detachment in the gun bay. The two Mantises left covered the middle, leaving the fifteen Dragoons with Lyall and two more squads of Marines with Devereaux as they moved through the Galaxius.

"Commander, it's Merrick. The Vultures have had to pull out, Hunter 2-1 and Hunter 2-2 went down, all hands lost. We can confirm that Hunter 2-3 and Hunter 2-4 are in the net. SCAR Team Two and Three are also in the net. Ravens are safe, but some of them went down, all hands lost too sir."

"Shit..." Lyall muttered as he marched through the corridors of the Galaxius. "Thanks for the status update, Merrick." 

"No problem, boss."

It had not been long since Merrick stopped speaking until Spyglass began too. The AI had managed to break into the computer systems of the Galaxius, and soon a small video feed was in the corner of everybody's helmets. It was footage from a camera in the cargo bay by the looks of it. Four engineers were kneeling on the floor, all garbed in UNSA outfits. The familiar voice of Admiral Barkov could be heard.

"All UNSA Forces, this is Vadim Barkov. These men are here because of your failures. Their blood is on your hands, their lives rest in your hands. Surrender your weapons and I shall let you join them, failure to do so will result in immediate execution. Mars Aeternum."

Lyall growled, before pushing forward. The SCARS, Marines and two Mantises charged, breaking the crew that had begun to dig into the ship and defend themselves. The way to the cargo bay was already littered with the dead, results from the battering from the Titan. The ships humming became louder, and soon both the members of Sword Team and Hammer Team realised that the SDF Galaxius was moving forward.

Thies was trying to get rid of the Titan.

That was a good thing that the Retribution had been able to follow them. The Titan would not be able to keep up with the Galaxius as well as continue the artillery pounding, so it would be up to the Retribution to do so. Reyes was putting a lot at risk, a lot more than Lyall was. The Retribution was smaller, it carried a lot less firepower and the shielding and armour was nowhere near as heavy or reliable as that of the Titan. The pounding was becoming a lot less frequent, and definitely a lot quieter. There was a noticeable gap in the time between the Titan throwing shells at the Galaxius and Retribution lobbing rounds at the capital ship.

"Reyes, it's Lyall. We're on our way to the armoury to recover the experimental weapon from Europa, and then we're on the bridge to get Thies. Confirm?"

 _ **-X-**_

"Confirm, Lyall, we're almost in the cargo bay to get the engineers." Reyes spoke. "Salter, Ethan, Omar, take the catwalks and clear them out. Kashima, Brooks, with me."

The Mantises, SCARS and the Marines waited on the other side of the doors. Nick trusted his group of soldiers, and he knew as soon as those doors were open they'd be getting those hostages out of the Galaxius alive and unharmed. So, it didn't take long for the catwalks to be cleared and as they passed through the cargo bay. Kashima took point, and funnily enough he was actually capable of being quiet from time to time. He managed to take down two soldiers with one bullet, and soon Brooks had managed to tackle one who had just walked around the corner and spotted the dead bodies that Kashima had just made before jamming a knife in his throat.

"Damn, Brooks. You coulda been a lot softer with him, I think you killed him as soon as you charged him." Kashima whispered, pulling the bodes into the shadows.

"Ain't nothin' scarier than an angry Irishman, huh?" Reyes smirked, walking into the command centre.

"No, sir."

"Alright, Kashima, get a sight on Barkov's gun. Irish, get a sight on his leg. I wanna take Barkov alive."

As the Canadian and the Irishman took their guns and aimed at the co-commander of the Galaxius, Nick readied his rifle because as soon as the door opened he knew there'd be a firefight. Nick looked to see Kashima and Brooks, their rifles following every movement that Barkov made as he mocked and taunted the clearly terrified engineers. It seemed that Barkov was enjoying parading around the cargo bay, he was acting more like an up-jumped kid than a commander of an SDF Capital Ship.

"Opening the door, take the shot."

The two rifles fired, and Nick smiled as he watched Barkov's gun fly out of his hand and his leg crumple. The Mantises, SCARS and the Marines barged into the room, taking down the SDF forces that were in the cargo room. The Mantises were the ones, unleashing pure hellfire on the SDF troopers that tried to fire missiles and destroy them as they stomped into the cargo bay. The last soldier was a lucky one, pulling out his missiles and destroying three of the four remaining Mantises.

That was before Ethan grabbed him and threw the man into the body of a nearby Jackdaw Mech Transport.

"Cargo Bay is clear. Kashima, get Barkov restrained!" Omar announced. "Sword Objective is complete! Marines, SCARS, we're commandeering a Jackdaw. Everyone, all aboard! Don't forget to bring that SDF bastard with us!"

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **This is just part one of the Galaxius Raid, everyone! The next part should be up relatively soon, and soon this story shall reach it's conclusion.**_

 _ **Remember to follow, favourite and review!**_

 _ **-The One Italian Stallion-**_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Crash Course

" _Sword Objective is complete! Kashima, Brooks, all of you! Get on the Jackdaw! Don't forget to bring that SDF bastard with us!"_

It was under a lot of heavy fire where Sebastian heard what Omar had said. Sword Team had saved the engineers and took Barkov prisoner. It was now up to Hammer Team to take down Caleb Thies and recover the experimental weapon. There was a loud whining sound, coming not too far away from the cargo bay. Hammer Team was just away from the bay, they had been given the objective of not allowing the SDF to reinforce the cargo bay and push through to the Armoury.

"Omar, evac to the Retribution!" Lyall yelled. "Drop the Ret, Hammer Team will evac to the Titan!"

"Affirmative, sir!" Omar said over the radio. "Cap'n Reyes, Salter and Ethan are coming to you!"

"You just get away from the Galaxius, Omar!" Lyall yelled, an explosion flying past and destroying his last Mantis.

"Harper! Fuck!"

"Cobb, don't go out there!" Van Zant yelled. "Cobb, fucking get back here! You're gonna get hit!"

"No! I need to get Harper! We can't leave him out there to die!"

"Cobb, get the fuck back here!"

It was clear that Cobb was more emotional than it seemed. The marine tried to pull out the Dragoon from the burning cockpit of the Mantis, but as soon as he climbed onto the metal body, he was hit twice. Once in the chest and once in the head, several times he was dead, dead, dead. Van Zant screamed aloud, firing entire magazines at the SDF soldiers. It was a magnificent sight to see, as at the same time two squads had popped out of nearby corridor had ended up getting mowed down as soon as they made their presence known.

"Damn it, Van Zant, you wanna end up like Cobb?" Elsa yelled, dragging Van Zant back into cover.

Van Zant roared at the Gunnery Chief, before she smacked him upside the head. The man was gob-smacked, he was maddened but he was sane at least. He began to take small potshots at the robots that had began to flood the corridor, marching towards the UNSA forces that had stormed the Galaxius.

"Mohawk, pass me the Gardian missile!" Lyall yelled, as he saw the robots marching towards them.

The Dragoon known as Mohawk popped his head out of cover, slipping the missile from the destroyed Mantis over before he caught a bullet to his head. The firefight was absolutely terrible, stuck in a corridor and outnumbered with more UNSA forces being killed than those of the SDF.

It was by far the most dangerous thing that Lyall had done in ages, possibly on the same level as Deimos.

Elsa looked at him like he was insane, but the perks of being a dirty soldier was that he most weapons in the UNSA arsenal. He flipped down a panel and began to rewire the missile, as if it were going to be fired from the Mantis in just about five seconds.

The heat was almost unbearable, the small fuel supply burned for a fuel seconds before the missile shot down the corridor, breaking some of the robots down and blowing up the defences that the SDF had managed to create.

Lyall had to give it to the SDF, albeit reluctantly, but they could organise themselves quickly.

It was just a shame they were used to being attacked by the ordinary.

Commander Lyall and the crew of the Titan were anything but ordinary.

"Van Zant, Elsa, Hughes, everyone! Push the Mantis forward!" Lyall yelled, running to the steel corpse of the fallen Mantis.

As soon as he had made it, he pulled down one of the gatling guns. It was aimed directly at the remaining SDF defences, and soon he did the same to the right gun. He began to rewire some circuitry, and soon the gatling guns had began to spool up. The remaining marines and the dragoons had began to push the carcass of the Mantis.

It was too much of a risk to fire off missiles, not with the already hazardous corpse of the Mantis. The gatling guns unleashed a hail of bullets, ripping through the flesh and metal of the SDF forces that were still. Oil and blood splashing onto the floor and roof, mixing together in some darkish-crimson pool that smelt of copper and sweetness.

It wasn't long until Reyes, Salter and E3N had made their way to the corridor, using their own Reaper Shields to block the incoming fire and using them to push alongside the Titan forces. They fired their rifles and LMGs, but E3N was the only one not firing any kind of firearm.

Mainly due to the massive minigun that had been clipped across his back with a magnetic holster.

"Did you miss, Commander Lyall?" E3N joked, pushing forward.

"Missed your metal ass? Not likely, Ethan!" Elsa said, pushing the Mantis before re-aiming the minigun on her side.

"Damnit, less jokes and more fighting please!" Van Zant yelled.

As soon as the three soldiers from the Retribution had arrived, the tide had slowly changed. The SDF had tried to retreat, only to be cut down as they entered the armoury. As soon as the UNSA forces had stormed the armoury, E3N dropped his shield and took his mingun from his back, unleashing hellfire on the SDF forces.

"Push to the storage room!" Lyall ordered. "That's where the weapon is!"

"You heard the Commander, push!"

It had not taken long for the UNSA forces to clean out the remaining SDF forces from the Armoury. The marines and the Dragoons had began to place detonation charges all over the high-payload missiles that were being developed, enough explosives to blow up a large section of the ship if not do some major damage.

"Ethan, open the door!" Reyes ordered. "We get this weapon and then what? Get out of the Galaxius?"

"We move forward." Elsa said.

"Excuse me?" Salter said, stepping up to the Frenchwoman. "You want us to push further? We barely have enough men as it is? We don't have air superiority and how long do you think it'll take for the SDF to repair the drop-engine?"

"They won't get to repair it, we'll be gone by then, you idiot." Van Zant muttered, reloading his rifle.

"You wanna say something, squid? Say it to my face!"

"Salter!"

"No, Nick!" Salter spat at the elder SCAR. "This blonde bimbo wants to get us all killed!"

As soon as Lyall was about to interrupt and rip into someone, E3N had already managed to tear the safe door off of the armoury storage. There was a simple square desk surrounded by lockers loaded with firearms of all shapes and sizes. On the square desk was what they were looking for, only a very small package.

A lot smaller than the F-SpAR Cannon that had been placed onto the Olympus Mons.

"Ethan, what the hell is that?" Reyes asked, as Lyall picked it up alongside a KAP-40 pistol.

"Shorthand, P-LAW." Ethan began. "Technically, Personal-Laser Augmented Weapon."

"Fancy ass name for a fancy ass gun."

As soon as Lyall spoke, he had regretted it. Another Spartan missile had flew past them, entering the armoury storage locker and throwing the trio out. The explosion even nailed a few marines, two of which being Van Zant and Hughes.

"Damn it!" Lyall roared, firing off the P-LAW.

A large laser burst through the armoury, taking down a Hunter Drone only for it to be replaced with two more Hunters and a large group of robots and even more soldiers. The Hunters, bots and soldiers fire was too much, and soon the UNSA were on the back foot once more.

It was a good thing that retreating was in the direction of the bridge.

"Reyes, Lyall, Ethan!" Elsa yelled. "We'll cover you, give me the weapon!"

Lyall handed the Frenchwoman the P-LAW and soon she was firing it like a pro, taking out many soldiers and robots. As soon as he had began, Salter, the Marines and the Dragoons began to lay down some more suppressing fire. Ethan, Sebastian and Reyes moved through the door to the bridge, only for the door to close as soon as they had escaped.

An explosion could be heard faintly, and as soon as the door had closed the trio could not open the door. It was locked from the outside.

"NO! NO! ELSA OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR! ELSA!"

"SALTER! SALTER, GOD DAMN IT!"

Ethan tried his hardest to pry open the doors but they were lodged shut, with no possible way of opening them again. They were locked, and since the door controls were busted there was no possible way out of the armoury.

"Sebastian," Elsa could be heard over the radio, with only Salter left firing.

Everyone else was dead.

"Elsa, why?"

"Because if you didn't, we would lose. If we lost you and Reyes, the SDF would, shit, Salter, get down! You alright?" Elsa asked over the deafening gunfire.

"Yeah, fucking pulse burn, shit!" Salter said. "Nick, go! You heard Frenchie, we aren't getting out of here alive. We'll give them everything we've got."

"Salter..." Ethan drawled in robotic monotone. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I just said it, you dumbass." Salter laughed over the gunire. "Take care of Reyes, Ethan. You're Fever now."

"Salter, you're gonna make me cry, ma'am." Ethan said, hoping for a reply.

The comm was dead.

Sebastian pushed forward, as soon as the gunfire had died. That was it, the marines and the dragoons, as well as Elsa and Salter, they were all dead. Nick and Ethan followed him, just as angry as he was. They had lost close friends to the SDF, they had lost more than anyone now. It was not long until they got to the bridge, where they found the doors unlocked but not open.

"Fever, open the door." Reyes said, immediately regretting his words.

"Don't call me that yet, Cap'n." The robot spoke. "I ain't earned the name yet sir."

Ethan soon broke down the door, and soon they entered the bridge. It was completely empty, no officers or ensigns, the tactical table was abandoned, and the room was devoid of any signs of battle.

"Thies… he knew we were coming. Barkov was fucking distraction."

There was a familiar crack, and lingering above them was the dreaded Olympus Mons. It's F-SpAr cannon was aiming directly at the Galaxius, glowing as if it were about to fire on it's own ship.

"Ha! You actually thought we didn't know what you were planning? We knew that you would be looking for the Galaxius, for Thies! You fools! You utter fools! Imbeciles! You can know die knowing that in your last moments you have failed your planet! It's a shame, you all would have made such great labourers! However, this is a lot better. Remember, Lyall? Death is no disgrace."

It had to be Kotch again, and it seemed he was lot more arrogant than before on Titan.

"Screw you, Kotch." Reyes grumbled. "We aren't gonna beg, never on our lives."

"I don't expect you to, Captain Reyes.

"Good, because we aren't dying today either." Ethan said, with some kind of confidence.

"What was that, it almost sounded like a robot has more bravado than the both of you combined! How does it feel to be out-manned by a bloody robot?"

"I ain't no robot, Kotch, you impotent screw-job. I'm just a farmer from South Carolina doing his duty. Breathers down!"

Reyes' glass mask fell over his face and soon the black helmet wrapped around his head. Ethan unleashed a final hail of bullets and soon the trio were sucked out into space. It could not have come any later, as soon as they were sucked out into the cold darkness of space, the Olympus Mons let rip on the Galaxius, tearing it apart before it exploded.

"Retribution, Titan, do you read?" Lyall asked, looking at the moon of Europa.

He had a plan, almost suicidal in nature but without the Mons, the SDF had nothing.

"Go for, Commander Lyall." Omar said. "I'm at the bridge with Gator, got a request?"

"We read you Commander, everyone is on the bridge, sir." Merrick said.

"All ships, I need you to drop." Reyes said. "Sending co-ordinates."

There was a small moment of silence between the men in space and the ships. It was as if the ships knew what they were being asked to do, but it seemed it was the only chance they would have if they wanted to end the war quicker.

"Lyall, you want the Retribution to drop and disable the Olympus' engines and then you want the Titan to crash the Olympus into the Europa." Merrick said.

"It's the only way to end this, they killed Elsa and Salter."

"Then it'll be my pleasure sir."

There was a blue and purple crack in space, with Retribution appearing first as it's cannons fired into the Olympus' engines failed, already dying due to the close proximity of the Retribution when it dropped just above the Olympus.

"Merrick, now!"

The Titan activated it's engines, and the UNSA Titan crashed into the port side of the Olympus Mons. The power of the super-carrier crashing against the Olympus was almost as powerful as an earthquake, tsunami and a volcanic eruption together.

Reyes, Ethan and Sebastian could barely contain their smiles as the Retribution flew down into the atmosphere. It had managed to avoid the crash course that the Titan and Olympus had set itself on. A familiar Jackdaw flew towards them, opening up the bay as Omar, Brooks and Kashima made their presence known. The marines were the only soldiers in the Jackdaw, meaning they had already offloaded Barkov and the others onto the Retribution.

Kashima and Brooks looked like they were gonna have a party as they joined Ethan, Reyes, Omar and Lyall at the cockpit.

"I take it Devereaux and Salter didn't make it?" Omar asked.

"Affirmative, Staff Sergeant." Reyes said. "Peace to the Fallen."

"Peace to the Fallen." Everyone else said in response.

The group of seven followed the Retribution, landed in the docks of the Retribution before they ran to the command centre as they entered the non-atmosphere of Europa.

Where it all began.

As the ship hovered in the air, looking over the battlefield, they could see the massive crash sight. The Olympus Mons was half stuck in the ground, with the Titan just skimming the ice.

Skimming looked more like dragging through the snow. The Titan looked like it had taken a lot of damage, but it seemed that it crash had taken out the F-SpAr cannon on the Olympus Mons. Ferran had already activated the comm systems to the Titan, allowing Sebastian to talk to his men on the Titan.

"All Titan members, board the Olympus Mons! Kill every single SDF bastard that you can, but leave the bridge to us! I want Kotch and Thies alive. Get a line to Raines! Tell him we have the Olympus Mons down and tell him to throw any UNSA ships he can get his hands on at Mars. This ends now!"

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **The penultimate chapter! Next chapter is the end, and how I personally think the campaign should have ended, obviously without my OC collection. However, this is my own personal fantasy. Elsa is dead, as is Salter in favour of Omar, who was just amazing for me! Hope you liked the story, and please review! I know this might garner some criticism, but I like it, it helps me improve!**_

 _ **So remember to follow, favourite and review!**_

 _ **-The One Italian Stallion-**_


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13. Justice and Retribution

It had not taken long for the Jackdaw to touch down on Europa. They were on borrowed time, being on a moon without a lot of oxygen. They'd get some more at the FOB but for now they would have to make do. The Olympus Mons was stuck, bow lodged deep in the ice with the Titan not far away from it.

This was it, the final battle.

Lyall sighed, readying his KAP-40. He wished he had a rifle, but he had ditched it in favour of the now destroyed P-LAW. He knew he had to win, for Elsa. She had been with him through thick and thin, and it was time that he finally did something for her instead of himself. People had always called Sebastian a selfish bastard, and it was very much true. He would tell himself that he was anything but a selfish bastard, yet he knew what everyone said was true. Ships he had served on would speak of him on shore leave, the Petty Officer turned hardened Commander that did nothing for his crew but all for himself and Admiralty Board. That all he wanted was a promotion and more medals even though he knew he had far more than enough to make him a war hero. Some of the more mouthy soldiers had said that he had never shown up on missions, even in ones that he clearly had taken part on. It could not have been further than the truth, the soldiers knew he had taken part in waging war. They had seen him geared up the Sentinel CI and carrying an NV4 rifle, they had seen him beat down squads of soldiers that were trying their hardest to kill the esteemed Commander.

 _Perhaps it was all true, that I was. I suppose it's time to change that._

"Lyall, we're gonna get through this, right?" Nick asked, NV4 rifle in hand.

"I didn't think this was where we'd end the war." Lyall replied. "I thought it would be on Mars or Earth. Not Europa, but I suppose we can't bitch about the battlefield."

"Victory or Death, sounds familiar." Omar said, handing Lyall a Karma-45 SMG.

"Might in Flight." Kashima said, with some odd looks directed at him. "What? If we're gonna start reciting mottos I thought I'd join in."

"Didn't take you for an Air Force man, Kash." Lyall smirked. "Who Dares Wins."

"Well, we dared and we're about to win." Omar said. "Bloody Aussies, even stealing mottoes now Lyall?"

"We ain't all convicts now, Sarge." Lyall replied. "Look at us, the Lucky Sevens."

After the group had left the bridge, they had armoured up and took a Raven from the Retribution to the ground. It was like an army was down there, ready to break through the Olympus Mons metal hide and kill anyone that was inside. It had been too long since the UNSA had been on the back-foot and with an entirely new Second and Fourth Fleet on the way to Mars, it was almost time for the SDF to finally admit defeat. Yet, they would only do so with the confirmed capture and imprisonment of their dear Admirals.

"You think they'll surrender, Cap'n?" Ethan asked. "I don't take Kotch as giver-upper."

"That's because he isn't. He'll end up fighting to the death and if he can't win, he'll run off."

"Well, he ain't getting away this time, right?" Brooks asked, before the Raven finally landed on the ground.

It had seemed that it had not taken long for the forces of the Retribution and the Titan to set up a forward operating base. He could see the SCAR Jackals hovering around the Titan, all pointed directly at the Olympus. The Vultures were lingering too, guns and missiles raised and ready to fire.

Soon, a familiar face rushed to Lyall, Chief Engineer Law had passed him a holo-pad before running off to do his duties like always. He'd ended up getting heavy-duty tracks ready for a Grizzly that was refusing to budge on the ice.

Lyall took one look at the holo-pad and was more than impressed with the amount of vehicles and soldiers that were being fielded on Europa. Looking at Reyes and Omar, they were too gob-smacked by the amount of people too.

"Jesus..." Reyes said. "I know the Titan was a super-carrier but you're carrying an entire army on that thing!"

"Damn right, it's a good thing too. Can never have too much of a good thing!" Omar joked, with Kashima, Ethan and Brooks laughing with him.

The holo-pad read:

 **SCAR Jackals – READY**

 **Ravens – READY**

 **Grizzly Battle Tanks – READY**

 **Falcon Quick Troop Transport Helos – READY**

 **Scorpion All-Terrain Battle Tanks – READY**

 **Vulture Heavy Gunships – READY**

The list went on and on forever, detailing the amount of numbers that the Titan and the Retribution had fielded. Tanks and gunships were ready to fire on all the SDF troopers that showed their face on the battlefield.

"Seems your engineers have been busy, Commander." Kashima laughed.

"Seems so." Lyall replied, passing the holo-pad to another engineer. "Come on, lets find our command centre."

The group had marched through the FOB, watching as vehicles from the Titan and even some from the Retribution milled around, ready for battle. They soon found some familiar soldiers from the Retribution, who led them to the tactical command centre. Gibbs, Hamilton and MacCallum were there, activating entire legions of C12 and C6 bots from the command centre.

Slade and Winters were there too, drawing out theories and plans for the upcoming battle. Imagawa was there too, organising some of the squads of the marines and others, alongside some of the Bullfrogs. She had been made the Staff Sergeant of all the Marines on the Titan due to the death of Devereaux, and with the help of the Bullfrogs it seemed that the Marines would be at more than one hundred percent.

The Dragoons, recovering from the large losses on the Galaxius were on the Mongoose quad-bikes, coming out from scouting. The numbers were already small, especially since the Galaxius but as soon as they regrouped they looked even smaller. Lyall looked at the battlefield and he could see the familiar burning frames of Mongooses, bodies just around them. It seemed their scouting mission had also taken the lives of the Dragoons.

"It's a ground battle, definitely." Slade said. "The SDF will have minimal air support, especially since we have the Longswords and Shortswords. There is no way they can win. We've got them right where we want them, Spyglass."

"I am merely advising caution, Lieutenant Jones." Spyglass replied. "The SDF are very unpredictable. They have pulled surprises out of various bags before."

"Yeah, well, now we have our own surprise and now look where we are." Winters replied.

"We are on Europa, one of the many moons of Jupiter." Spyglass informed.

"I know that, Spyglass." Winters spat. "I can see it too, I am on the fucking moon."

"That's enough, Spyglass." Lyall said, marching up to the table.

As Lyall marched up to the table with Reyes, Omar and the marines, he noticed that Spyglass had taken his form of a C12 battle robot. It was massive and clunky and even unwieldy. It seemed that with Spyglass' AI, the C12 was a lot more intelligent due to the processing power of the Titan's AI. Lyall spared Winters the pain of an argument with Spyglass, mainly so they could finish the plan and get to stopping the SDF as soon as possible. The more time they wasted was more time that Kotch and Thies had to try and evacuate.

"Affirmative, Commander." Spyglass said. "It appears that some of the Olympus' weapon systems are still working, but not enough to make a dent in the FOB."

"I can see that, what about the Titan?"

"We managed to make a direct hit on the Olympus with the MAC cannon, destroyed a large portion of the ship. It's been sealed off completely." Pilot Merrick said, in his version of combat gear with an EBR rifle in hand.

"How many casualties did we take in the collision?" Lyall asked.

"Too many..." Winters interjected. "Mostly the robots, completely destroyed with a few left. Decks D6 to D12 were completely obliterated with almost no survivors."

"Peace to the Fallen." Lyall muttered.

The group repeated it before surrounding the table, ready to hear the new plan to finish off the SDF.

"The Olympus Mons is grounded, and they aren't escaping any time soon. Kotch is on the bridge, and I have no doubt that they have Thies with them. Those two bastards are gonna be leading from the bridge, but we aren't. We are gonna be on the battlefield with our men, fighting with them."

Two pictures popped up on the table, profiles of Salen Kotch and Caleb Thies, with a blueprint of the Olympus Mons also appearing, focusing on the bridge of the Olympus Mons. The pictures were soon pushed to the side where the battlefield was shown to them, taken from the birds eye view.

"What's the plan then?" Reyes asked. "Kill Kotch and Thies and destroy the Olympus?"

"No." Winters said. "We want everything that they have. We're gonna take all the data from the Olympus for the UNSA and capture Kotch and Thies. We're not the SDF, we won't do it there way."

"Winters has it right, Captain." Omar interjected. "Killing Kotch is what we all want to do, even the robots. Yet, we have to do it our way. We arrest him for war crimes and genocide, he goes in and he'll die in whatever hole we throw him in."

"Quiet down." Lyall said. "Spyglass, continue with the plan."

"The Olympus Mons is buried half way in the ice. The only way to escape is to get off from the chassis, like we did when the Tigris went down on Titan. They won't retreat, and Kotch and Thies will be on the bridge. We have all of our ground forces at the FOB provide artillery fire whilst our air force bombs the surface of the SDF. The Vultures and the Jackals will provide air support by destroying the remaining guns that still work on the Mons. Falcons and Ravens will drop off our troops onto the body of the Mons to infiltrate the ships.

"Once inside, Marines, SCARS and Bullfrogs will clear the Olympus Mons. Marines are on data retrieval duty and SCARS are on clearance."

"What about the Bullfrogs?" Winters asked. "We aren't being left out are we?"

"No." Lyall replied. "The Bullfrogs and the Dragoons are with me, Reyes and Omar. Ethan, Kashima and Brooks, you're with the marines."

"Are you sure about this, Commander?" Ethan asked. "We could help with Kotch and Thies."

"He's sure, Ethan." Reyes replied. "You're good with technology, and the Marines will need you. Spyglass is gonna be commanding the bots so it's up to you to get all that data."

"You know I get stage fright, right, Cap'n?" Ethan asked, his eyeflap raising.

"Yep, I know. Seems your audition on Geneva has give you our lead role."

"Damnit. I knew I was too good for Hollywood."

The group laughed, even Spyglass somehow managed to give off what sounded like a mechanical laugh and some menacing growl.

This was it.

The SDF were going to lose, either today or the next few days. If Raines was taking it to them on Mars, it meant that it was up to the Titan and the Retribution to finally finish the job and stop them on Europa. They wouldn't be able to get away, and that was good.

It meant Kotch would never be leaving the planet alive.

"This is it, guys." Ethan stated. "Are we all ready? There ain't no turning back after this."

"We're ready, Ethan." Reyes said, placing his hand on the table to confirm the operation.

"Definitely." Lyall spoke, before placing his hand on the table too. "Cofirm, operation is a go."

Operation: Black Flag was a go.

 _ **-X-**_

There was more to the plan, there always was. With the Taskmasters and Havoc cannons on the Olympus still operational, the UNSA had a distraction to keep the guns off of the fleet of aircraft that was coming in to drop off as many soldiers on the Mons as possible. Spyglass, due to his immense mechanical and technical gifts was able to command all of the C6 and C12 bots, using them as a ground force to distract the Havocs and Taskmasters whilst the Falcons and Ravens flew the troops in as the Jackals flew air support.

"Damn it, Kashima!" Omar yelled. "What happened to self discipline?"

"I got air-sick, Sarge, I can't help it!"

"Our ships is now in range of Olympus cannon fire." Spyglass said, one bot piloting the Falcon.

Lyall was the co-pilot, seated just above the robot in the seat behind him, readying the machine guns just in case any Skelters got the wrong idea. Omar, Reyes, Winters, Imagawa as well as Kashima and Brooks were in the passenger section. Omar and Reyes were on the side cannons, with Winters and Imagawa sitting down safely.

"All callsigns, this is King Blackbird, all wings, report in." Lyall said over the comm.

"Spider Wing, free and clear."

"Dragon Wing, free and clear."

"Scorpion Wing, free and clear."

"Bear Wing, free and clear."

"All wings, free and clear!" The main Wing Commander said.

The closer they got to the Olympus, the more often the gunfire and explosions could be heard. The robots below had piloted a company of Grizzlies to give some heavy fire to the C6s and C12s. They were peppering the Mons with heavy fire, firing SABOT and HEAT rounds. The Havocs were the first to fire, taking down two tanks right off the bat before focusing and destroying the mechanised legions that were slowly advancing on the Olympus Mons.

The C12s were firing volleys of Hellfire missiles at the Olympus, but the impacts were small and barely visible on the shell of the Olympus Mons. It was a shock to see the engines of the Mons trying to fire and light up again, but little did the engineers know that it was just plunging the SDF Supercarrier further into the icy depths of Europa. There was a familiar pounding of guns as the Scorpions and Grizzlies back at the FOB were firing their rounds, as well as the Retribution which was firing flak at the downed Olympus, putting potholes in the chassis of the SDF Supercarrier. Then there was the screech of Jackal engines, as Jackals decorated in the familiar warpaint such as warthogs and bears thundered past the fleet of Ravens and Falcons to provide close air support.

It was a moment before the flak hitting the UNSA where Reyes thought he was having a hallucination. The Jackal that Salter had owned was flying right next to them, Nick would know that jet from anywhere. It had the familiar viper decals on the nose of the Jackal. He was thankful that canopy of the Jackal was see through, and as soon as he had rubbed his eyes he could see the familiar robotic frame of E3N inside the pilot seat. He had taken the title of Fever very seriously, even using the jet that Salter had used before her unfortunate demise.

"Raider, this is Fever." E3N said. "Do you read? Don't leave me high and dry, Reyes."

"I… I read you, loud and clear, Fever!" Reyes yelled, almost smiling as well as crying. "You flying with us, Fever?"

"Maybe, sir!"

As E3N spoke, the flak began. Four Falcons went down, along with two Ravens as soon as the gun fire had began. There was a noticeable amount of blips in the air coming straight for them, and soon everyone realised that the Olympus Mons was sending as many Skelters as it could to stop the incoming UNSA forces. E3N flew off to the left, before turning round to chase one of the Skelters, destroying it as soon as he could with a spray of machine-gun fire.

"Ethan, Wing Commander, defend the Transports!" Reyes yelled, firing one of the side-cannons.

"Affirmative, sir! Bear Wing, Dragon Wing! Follow me!" E3N said. "Wing Comm, you have Spider and Scorpion Wing."

"Affirmative, sir!"

The Jackals flew off, and soon they were taking down Skelters left, right and centre. Spyglass and Lyall were making erratic movements to make sure they lived to get onto the Olympus and didn't die.

"All Falcons, take evasive manoeuvrers and keep pushing forward!"

The closer and closer they got to the Olympus, the more flak they ended up receiving. That was obvious, they should have expected it but the fire was so constant that more Ravens and Falcons were being shot down to crash down on the ice. Yet, they were so close to the Olympus, it would only be a few seconds until they were just above it.

That was until a friendly Falcon ended up crashing into the Jackdaw that Lyall and his team were in. The friendly Falcon was empty, the team inside fell out and the pilots in the cockpit had been shot to pieces. Spyglass and Lyall had tried to pull away, but the destroyed Falcon was weighing too much on the right side of their own Falcon. The more they pulled away, the more that their Falcon was tipping slowly more to the right than it should have done so. Lyall and Spyglass then tried to pull to the right, to even out the tipping so they wouldn't fall out or go crashing into the ice.

It was not meant to be, just as it happened.

Just as it seemed to even out, the Falcon lodged into King Blackbird fell out of the sky and into the ice, only to be replaced by a fiery corpse charging through the air and crashing into the air and throwing the ship into a tailspin. The left rotor was completely gone, as it had never existed before. The ship was thrown into chaos, and as they somehow managed to gain what little control they had, they realised that Imagawa had been thrown out in the crash. Omar was lying in the back, clinging onto the hand of Brooks was hanging out of the ship. The Staff Sergeant refused to let go of the Irishman, and the only reason they both had yet to fall out was due to Todd Kashima evening out the weight by pulling on Omar's leg.

"This is SCAR Wings Two, Three, Four and Five!" One pilot said. "King Blackbird, I recommend you land on the Olympus Mons now!"

"Slade, how bad is the flak?" Lyall yelled, gripping the joystick of the Falcon as hard as he could, refusing to let go of the joystick to lessen how bad the crash would be.

"Havocs and Taskmasters are down! The Dragoons have made it in but..." Slade trailed off, knowing that Lyall would guess what happened.

"They gave their lives for the rest of us..." Reyes said over the radio. "Peace to the Fallen."

"Do you have clear visual on the landing sight, Slade?"

"Sending co-ordinates, bearing zero-four-zero!" Slade said, before pulling away to fight off another Skelter. "Good luck in there!"

As soon as Slade finished speaking, Lyall took one look at the co-ordinates and knew where they lead.

The bridge.

"All UNSA forces this is Commander Sebastian Lyall! Anyone inside the Olympus Mons, keep fighting but stay far away from the bridge. We are having a danger-close landing, repeat, a danger-close landing!"

Sebastian pulled as hard as he could to the left, where the right rotor completely shut off, leaving Lyall and the crew in dead air. He continued to lodge the joystick as much to the right as he could, so much he broke the joystick off and they were left completely dead. "Spyglass!"

"I am what you say 'dead-sticking' Commander Lyall!" Spyglass yelled, even he was clinging to the joystick. "I believe this may be a bad crash, Commander. Have you equipped your safety belt?!"

"Yes, Spyglass!"

As they flew through the air, Sebastian yelled as he noticed the Falcon had taken a small nosedive, missing the bridge but aiming just under it. Lyall smacked the robot body sitting in front of him, but it accomplished nothing. He left his seat and could see the chaos in the Falcon. Winters was clinging to his seat, rifle in hand and strapped in tighter than everyone else. Reyes was clinging to the outer gun, firing it at whatever looked remotely like an SDF soldier. It was when he noticed Omar and Kashima just barely holding on to the body of Brooks as he almost fell out. Lyall grabbed Kashima by the foot and dragged him into the cockpit ever so slightly, and by effect dragging Omar into Falcon too. He would have saved Brooks, but as soon as he was about to grab Brooks, he could just see Brooks fly out of the Falcon, flailing madly as he fell through the air to his inevitable death.

"BROOKS!"

Before anyone could do anything, there was the horrifying sound of metal crashing through metal. Spyglass had managed to crash the Falcon into the bridge and get them in alive.

 **-X-**

Lyall couldn't feel anything, but he knew someone was dragging him. He couldn't see who, but they spoke in such a different dialect that at a guess they were Martians. They were shouting, but they were soon silenced by two commanding voices of the towering men in front of them. Like everyone else, they were wearing heavy winter suits, with see through masks around their heads. With a dizzying thud, they had began to tear off the black helmet of Lyall's CI armour, breaking the helmet but none of the oxygen supply. The black mask wrapped around his mouth and nose, tubes connecting into the shoulders of the suit as the internal oxygen tanks supplied the Commander with his much-needed oxygen.

"Commander Sebastian Lyall of the UNSA Titan." The balding man said. "My, my, it has been a very long time since I had the pleasure of hearing that name."

"Admiral Caleb Thies, leader of the SDF High Council on Mars." Lyall managed to sputter. "I would ask why you aren't on Mars, but I presume you knew that Raines had you fucked on Mars didn't he?"

"Aren't you ever the wordsmith, Sebastian. I suppose-" Kotch tried to speak only to be cut off by Thies.

"You know Mars would never be able to take on the UNSA without the Olympus Mons." Thies spoke. "The only reason we had you was because of fleet numbers and because Riah and Kotch's planning."

"It's a shame Riah is in prison, isn't it? That was your plan, to kill us on the Galaxius? You killed your own men, just so you could kill me? You would have killed one of your own admirals!"

Caleb kicked him in the face as he shouted. "Be quiet, and listen to me. You have lost, you cannot win now. Look at yourself, look at your comrades, you're imprisoned, with the SDF standing over you once more! This is proof that you Earthlings have no right to even try and expand off of Earth. You could not control Mars, you couldn't control the SDF and look at what happened! You lost two fleets in the space of an hour! How pathetic are you?"

"Pathetic enough to have you right where I want you..." Lyall murmured, garnering a punch from Kotch.

"YOU HAVE LOST!" Kotch roared. "Admit it! You lost on Deimos! You lost on Geneva and you lost on the Galaxius! How can you even say that we are where you want us, when it is fact that it is the complete obvious?"

Lyall laughed, loud enough to make it look look rather weird. He turned, and he could see Omar, Reyes and the others looking at him as if he were crazy. He definitely sounded like he was, laughing in the face of a death that could come at any moment. Lyall turned around to see the familiar barrel of his KAP-40 pointed at his head. He stopped laughing, and was staring daggers at Caleb Thies, who was pointing the gun at him. He put the barrel directly against his head, and smiled with a grin filled with sadistic mirth.

"You are going to die today, Commander Lyall." Kotch gloated, smiling as Thies placed the gun against Lyall's temple. "You will die knowing that you will lose. You will die on the same useless moon just like your brother."

"Fuck you, Kotch. You were always a fucking arrogant prick, you haven't changed."

"How dare you!"

As Kotch ripped the gun from his fellow Admiral's hand, the door behind them burst open. SCARS and Marines bolted in, firing bullets everywhere. Lyall dropped to the floor, pushing against Thies as they both fell to the floor. Kotch fired at the Marines, but he was swiftly taken care of with two shots to the legs and a rifle butt to the face by Omar as the freed English Marine charged the SDF Commander. As Lyall and Thies fell to the floor, Thies tried to grab his Oni pistol but it was swiftly batted aside by Lyall. Two marines quickly apprehended Thies before cutting off the cuffs before Lyall marched over to the downed Kotch.

He took to one knee and readied his hand. Kotch would die in the same manner as his brother, but Lyall would make it painful for the damned SDF Admiral. He punched the glass of Kotch's helmet, and slowly but surely he could see the SDF general begin to suffocate and beg for breath. As the glass began to crack and break even more, he took a spare oxygen cannister from a marine and pulled Kotch up from the floor, making him kneel before Lyall as he attached the cannister to Kotch.

Kotch coughed, and smiled as he took the oxygen, smiling at Lyall.

"Even now, you prove your weakness." Kotch gloated. "You give me mercy."

"Oh, this is mercy? I would give you mercy but after what you did to my brother, I won't show you mercy."

"What… what do you mean?"

"Death is no disgrace, Kotch." Lyall gloated smirking as he detached the oxygen cannister. "Don't you remember?"

Kotch's eyes were filled with fear as the oxygen supply left him, but he would not beg for mercy. He was a Martian, born and bred to be better than any Earthling that would ever exist. Yet now he was clutching at his throat as he fell to the floor, his lungs burning and aching for some, or any oxygen.

He wanted to breath.

He watched as the UNSA began to cheer, not bothering to even try and save them like they did Thies. Thies was worth more to them, under duress he would give up any kind of information, anything to save his own skin, like a true Martain would.

He then took one look at Lyall, who was staring at the hole left by the crashed Falcon. Lyall did not gloat, he did not scream or shout like an animal like the rest of his comrades. He just remained silent as he stared out at the Titan, which with the help of the Retribution was now back in the air.

It was very reluctantly that Kotch admitted it, but in his final breath he had come to terms with it.

The SDF had lost.

The UNSA had won.

Kotch was dead.

And Lyall was alive.

 _ **X-X-X**_

 _ **It's the end!**_

 _ **It took me so long and so many cut chapters to make this as good as it could be and I know it could still be better but like I said, this is my opinion of how it should have been if the developers actually tried to put effort into the game instead of cramming it with Modern Warfare Remastered. I hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I did writing, however long it took to write and hoped for it be put back up when I took it down. I thought I had lost the files but I found them once again and once I did, I knew I could never leave this unfinished.**_

 _ **I would absolutely hate myself if I did.**_

 _ **I thank you all for leaving reviews and favourites and following the story, and I hope to have you read many more of my fics, those of which I have completed and those I shall write in the future!**_

 _ **But for now, Ciao!**_

 _ **-The One Italian Stallion-**_


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